My Boy
by CaptainRogersGirl0829
Summary: After an incident in the lab, the Avengers find themselves caring for a 2 year old that oddly resembles their Captain. The Avengers have to find out how to turn him back, but when he grows a fierce attachment to Natasha and Bruce, will they become too attached to him? How will caring for a child affect their relationship? Especially when people are out to kill the toddler?
1. Chapter 1

"He looks... better?" Clint comments, his gaze not diverting from his subject, his head slightly tilted to the side.

"He looks tiny." Tony says, his face expressing his disgust.

"No shit Sherlock, he's a baby! No thanks to you." Clint throws back at him.

"You don't think I did it on purpose, do you?" Tony asks in disbelief.

"I don't know you hated him ever since you met. You guys still aren't friends and its been months!"

"I don't hate him enough to turn him into a baby!" Tony shouts at the archer. At his shout the topic of their conversation starts to stir, waking up from his nap in the couch, wrapped in Thor's cape.

"Ssh!" Natasha all but hisses at both boys. "Your waking him." Too late for that. The child opens his eyes to gaze up at the redheaded women after hearing her voice. Tiny blue, curious eyes gaze into soft green eyes before Natasha offers him a smile, but makes no attempt to move from her seat next to him. Without removing her gaze from the child, she addresses Tony. "Are you sure this is Steve?"

"Pretty sure. I mean this thing was right where Steve had stood, and it was surrounded by his giant super soldier gym clothes."

"This thing Stark is a baby." Natasha glares at him, if looks could kill. Tony quickly raises hands in mock surrender, but says nothing to the redheaded assassin. Natasha rolls her eyes and at the sound of the child's whimpering turns get attention back to him. "Hey there little guy." Natasha says reaching a hand out to tap his nose softly making the baby giggle. The four guys in the room, two of whom were being silent and watching the other three bickering, watch carefully as the women interacts with their tiny teammate. Thor with confusion, Bruce with interest, and Tony and Clint with amusement. Clint leans forward in his seat, as if anticipating something that wasn't happening. For a few moments the boys watch Natasha tickle, talk to and laugh with baby Steve. It isn't until Steve starts whimpering and fussing that the boys visibly tense and slightly panics, none of them having any experience with babies, especially fussy ones. Natasha simply only tries to calm the child down without actually picking him up which only seems to upset him more. Clint is the only one brave enough to speak what's on all the boys minds.

"Aren't you gonna pick him up?"

Natasha looks up at them, an irritated look in her eyes. "What? Just because you guys see boobs, you instantly think mommy." The boys stay silent Thor and Bruce bowing their head in shame, while Clint and Tony glance between her and the wincing baby. Sighing she shakes her head before reaching out to grab Steve. Her hands slip under his arm pits and she lifts him up easily, Steve weighting no more then 20 pounds, and stands with the child in arms holding him in a cradle position. "Ssh," Natasha whispers bouncing the baby and rocking him back and forth. The boys watch in amazement and relief. At least one of them knew what to do. Steve's calms down a little at the feeling of arms wrapped around him and looks around the room, tears still running down his red face. His gaze lands on Natasha and he places a small chubby hand on her cheek, curiously looking at her. Natasha gives him a small smile, the only thing she can offer him, and reposition him against her chest when he gets fussy again. Laying his head on her chest, Steve's crying ceases instantly when he feels and hears the steady beat of Natasha's heart.

"How do you do that? Or know what to do?" Clint asks in surprise. Natasha shrugs, and Clint huffs to her lack of response. "Well keep doing it!" Clint falls back in the couch,his body relaxing against the soft cushions beneath him.

After wiping the tears off Steve's face, much to Steve's disapproval, Natasha notices Steve's attention has been grabbed by something in the room. She follows his gaze towards the shy scientist in the corner of the room. Steve has focused his gaze on Bruce, and gives him a small grin when the scientist gives him a tiny wave as he pulled out a tablet from behind him. Steve's attention is caught by the shiny object in Bruce's hands and he only watches Bruce type for a minute before losing interest.

Watching as the baby occupies himself with playing with Natasha's hair, the archer lets out a loud, long sigh. "What are we going to do with him?" He asks rubbing the back of his neck.

Bruce who was typing away on his device spoke for the first time since gathering with his teammates, "I've theorized that considering his lack of communication with the three of you," Bruce says pointing at Clint, Tony and Thor. "He had no memory of being any older then 2, his current age."

"What about you and little Red over here? How come he is interacting with you?" Tony asks pointing at the willingness Steve expressed of letting Natasha hold him and the smile he offered at Bruce a couple minutes ago. Bruce shrugs,

"Maybe because Natasha and I would actually talk to him when he was an adult. You never spoke to him because as Clint pointed out earlier, you aren't exactly friends. Thor is always traveling so he never here and Clint is always on missions or at SHIELD. If you noticed and payed attention more you'd notice that Steve is trying to reach out to you all and you just ignore him. Remember he was just released from the ice a year ago and the anniversary of it is quickly approaching, which makes it even harder for Steve. He needed friends and Natasha and I were the only ones there for him." For once in his life Tony actually feels guilty for being a pain in the ass and Bruce can tell by the way he's looking at him. Thor sighs and runs a hand through his hair,

"I'm sorry my friends. I did not know Steven was troubled this much and I feel awful for every neglecting him." He apologies, his eyes on baby Steve as Steve puts his fist in his mouth and starts gnawing on it.

"He should've told us then," Clint says "That way we wouldn't have unintentionally ignore him."

"Do you really believe Steve was going to tell you?" Natasha asks trying to get her hair out of Steve's mouth and hands. Clint remains silent and Natasha nods at Bruce to continue.

"Anyway, he has the mental capacity of a baby and its like never age at all. I have no idea how long it will last. Could be a couple days, weeks or months."

"Months!" Tony shout making the scientist jump in his seat and Natasha cover Steve's ears when he wince.

Bruce motions for Tony to lower his voice replying in a calming manner, "Yes, Months. Depending on how fast you can find a cure considering it was your machine that caused this."

Tony actually looks taken back that his 'science bro' was against him in this, but he composes himself quickly before he's caught looking shocked. "I was trying to help the poor guy."

"Help him?" Natasha scoffs. "How?"

"He was struggling trying to keep up with modern technology so I thought I'd make easier for him and slip it in his brain. I didn't know the parts would counteract and do exactly the opposite of what I was trying to do, bring his physical appearance down as well."

"Well this is just great. Rogers is a baby, Fury is gonna kill us and now we're stuck with this th-" Clint starts to say, but Bruce sends him a warning look before he can finish his sentence. "Baby." Clint finishes. "What are we gonna do? None of us know anything about children, least of all how to care for them."

Natasha gives the archer a sly show and starts walking up to him, baby in arms. "I'm sure you guys will figure it out." She says in a calming voice before she drops the baby in her partners lap. The expression on Clint' s face when the baby was, very carefully, dropped into his lap would've been funny if he hadn't almost dropped Steve. The archer's hands immediately go around Steve's waist and he pulls him close to his chest, his shoulders tense and his expression priceless. Steve squirms and winces from almost being dropped and tries to reach back out to Natasha, clearly not liking the new person holding him. Natasha just tucked the blonde mess of curls on his head and gives Clint a smirk.

"You guys?" Tony questions raising an eyebrow of suspicion and fear, more of the latter. "What your not helping?"

Giving him a smile, she speaks "You see I would, but..." Natasha shrugs and starts walking down the hall towards the elevator where a duffle bag was placed directly in front of it. Steve tries desperately to reach the redhead, trying to get out of Clint's arms, which tighten around him when he wriggles and squirms."Fury assigned me a two week mission in England."

"England!" All the boys scream in worry much to Natasha's satisfaction. Bruce and Clint share uncomfortable glances and Thor looks, for the first time since meeting him, frightened. Tony's mouth drops, not even concealing his emotions anymore. To scared to cover up for his reputation.

Natasha bends down picking up her duffle bag, a satisfied smile on her face. "But I'm sure you guys will be fine, I'm mean you are Avengers. If you can battle aliens, you'll be able to care for a baby." And she walks into the elevator turning around to see her teammates faces long enough and Steve in the verge of tears before the elevator door close. It silent for a long moment until...

"WAH!"

Again Clint almost drops the screaming baby in his arms, the sudden cry alarming him. Every head is turned towards the frantic archer as he makes attempt to calm the upset child. "Um... calm down." He says emotionless I-It's okay. Clint's...h-here?" If there wasn't a screaming child, Tony would've called him out on his stuttering and the bead of sweat running down his neck, but instead he shouts over the cry.

"Is that supposed to make him feel better?"

"Here you try!" Clint says about to pass Steve to Tony, but the billionaire runs behind the demi God, claiming loudly

"I don't hold babies and I don't like being handed things. Give it to Thor!"

"I'm afraid I must decline my hawk friend. I do not trust myself with young Steven and I may drop him." Thor says obviously trying to get out of holding the child. Bruce quietly slips out of the room while two of the men argue and Thor tries to make himself small to get away from them. Bruce sends a sympathetic glances towards Thor before riding down to the lab.


	2. Chapter 2

The elevator dings just as the doors open and Pepper Potts rushes out of them, her eyes looking around frantically. She opens her mouth to speak, but she halts her words as her attention is grabbed. "Oh my god…" she whispers, her eyes taking in the sight in front of her. The Avenger's main common room was not how she left it a week ago.

It's a mess! Pillows litter everywhere, food stains the wall, holes in the walls and glass, and furniture is turned upside. Hesitantly she walks into the room, being cautious of things around her and stepping around the objects littering the floor. The mess in the room only doubles her amount of worry. "Tony!" she calls worriedly. "Tony where are you!? JARVIS where is-"

Tony rushes out of the hallway, hair disheveled and eyes opened wide in fear. "No!" Running up to Pepper, he presses a hand to her mouth and takes a deep breath as if waiting for something to happen. Minutes ago by and nothing happens. When nothing does and Clint walks out of the second door to the left with thumbs up Tony relaxes, removing his hand from his girlfriend's mouth. "Thank God!... I need a drink." He adds as an after thought. Walking away from Pepper, Tony takes his time preparing and pouring a glass of scotch while Clint gladly joins him, the archer just as exhausted as he is. After putting one the couches upright, both men take a seat and engage in a conversion, unaware of the confused women behind them. From the lack of attention or explanation of why she had to come back to the tower, Pepper starts getting angry.

"Tony." She calls, tapping her foot impatiently. The inventor glances back at her, gives her a tiny wave, before closing his eyes and laying his head back with a thud. Groaning loudly she looks over at the archer who is currently nurturing his drink. "Clint?" He doesn't respond. "Guys? Hello." They don't pay attention to her and soon snoring can be heard from the inventor.

Fed up with being ignored, Pepper storms over to them and snatches the scotch out of his hands before slapping them both upside the head efficiently waking Tony up and putting Clint out of his trance.. "What the hell is going on!" She screams, angry. Both boys eyes widen for the slightest second and just before they tell her to be quiet, a loud wall erupts from the hallway. Tony falls off the couch, landing on his knees and Clint groans loudly jumping off the couch and grudgingly walks back down the hallway. "Tony what is that noise? Is that a baby?" Pepper asks the distraught inventor as he right buries the heels of his hands in his eyes, trying to get rid of the headache.

"God this is worse than a hangover." Tony comments as he stands.

"Tony what is the world is going on here? Explain to me why I had to be called from an important meeting with the president's representatives just to watch you and Clint drink your asses off." Pepper demands when Tony grabs her hand and pulls her along towards the hallway.

"Long story, it's better to show you then to tell you. You'll figure it out once you lay eyes on him."

"Show me? Show me what? Him? Is there a baby in the tower? Tony!" Tony merely just shakes his head and puts a finger to his lips tugging on her arm. "Tony why aren't you answer my questions?" Pepper insists. The crying gets louder the closer they get to the source of the sound. Steve's bedroom. Pepper looks a the door confused, and an eyebrow raised at Tony."What are we doing here? Were you snooping through Steve's things again? I told you Tony to respect his privacy."

"No I wasn't snooping through his things again." Tony replies rubbing his eyes roughly, the crying almost making him want to cry.

"Then why are we here and why is there a baby in Steve's room? In fact, why the hell is there even a baby in the tower?" Pepper asks absolutely and utterly confused, her anxiety making her entire body shake.

"No questions." Tony says tiredly stopping right in front of the super soldier's room turning to face her. "Please, just keep an open mind when you see. And don't ask questions, at least not until he calms down. He's been crying for five days straight and wont stop."

"He who?" Pepper insists and her only response to the question is a finger pressed to his lips. Sighing Pepper nods and waits for Tony to open the door, rubbing a hand across her forehead. Tony closes his eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath and opening the closed door.

Pepper's eyes immediately land on the three figures around the large king sized bed where a small figure lays on top, the tiny body thrashing around as the other three try to calm him down. "What the..." at the sound of her voice the three large figures turn to face her. Thor and Bruce look just as exhausted as Clint and Tony, and Bruce is looking a little stressed. But Pepper's attention is grabbed by the tiny toddler on the bed. Looking back behind her at Tony, he nods his head and gives her a gentle push in the bed's direction.

"Please… try to calm him down. We're exhausted. We don't know how to make him shut up. We've tried everything and he wont be quiet." The look on Pepper's face almost breaks her heart. The dark rings around Tony's eyes confirm what he said about exhaustion and the desperation that fills his eyes is what makes Pepper start walking forward. Walking hesitantly to the bed, the CEO places her briefcase on the ground near the edge of the bed before taking Bruce's previous position at the head of the bed while scientist gladly goes to stand next to Tony. Clint and Thor back away as well watching intently as Pepper insects the baby, her eyes roaming over the tiny body. Pepper raises an eyebrow at the shirt that's wrapped around the baby's butt shaped in the form of a diaper. 'They couldn't have bought diapers?' Pepper asks herself. Looking up at the others they shrug innocently, giving her stupid grins. Shaking her head she looks down and finds the baby's tiny body draped in one of Steve's large T-shirt, the shirt plainly obvious that it's too big on the child.

Upon finding nothing out of the ordinary except the red, tired face, she looks back at the others confused. Tony said she'd understand it when she looked at the small babe and right now the only thing she understands is that there is a baby in the tower. She opens her mouth to speak, but Clint beats her to it. "Look at his eyes." Clint says hoping Pepper will recognize the super soldier, the baby blue eyes clicking something in her brain. Looking down at the child again she sits at the edge of the bed catching the baby's attention.

The toddler's blue, tear filled eyes looks up at the women, his face red and flushed and breathing rapid. He reaches his arms out, wincing, at the women giving him attention. He definitely wanted to be picked up, something the guys didn't want to do.

The boys watch as Pepper reaches her arms out and scoops the child in her arms, rocking him back and forth. The feeling of arms around him, once again, calms him down to the point where he can breathe properly. Pepper smiles down at him, bouncing him up and down, cooing softly at him. Steve's crying lessens at the sight of Pepper smiling at him until it's completely gone and only hiccups and winces come out of him. The boys hold their breath waiting for her to figure it out, hoping she does so they don't explain it.

A sudden gasp is heard from the bed and Pepper's body straighten instantly, her rocking movements coming to a halt. The boys wait with baited breath, for some sign of recognization.

It's a while before she speaks again. "... Steve?" She whispers to the child.

At the sound of his name, his eyes shoot up to look at her, a questioning look in his eyes. She gasps, tightening her old on him as she feels him start to slip through her arms. The sudden shock of seeing Steve respond to his name makes Pepper's thoughts run wild. 'What the hell…'

Pepper and Steve spend a couple minutes examining each other, sizing each other up. Pepper looking at everything; his size, his weight, the clothes he's wearing, but mostly she looks at his face seeing the similarities that baby Steve has that the adult Steve had. Steve didn't lose a single feature from his baby years. He definitely lost his baby fat, but everything else stayed the same. His cheek bones, hair, skin tone, jaw line, lips are all the same. But the thing that gets her the most is the blue eyes that stare up at her, them doing their own elevation of whose holding him. "Oh my God… What happened to you?" She asks, Steve looking up at her with confusion written all over his face. He raises a hand and presses it against her cheek as if urging her for an explanation of what she meant.

"Can you understand me?" Pepper asks slowly. Steve stares up at her for a long time, Pepper almost convinced that he doesn't, before he nods his head. Smiling down at him she asks him another question. "Can you speak?" She asks the toddler. Again he does the same thing, almost as if debating if he should trust Pepper.

"Yes." Finally the child says in shaking, scared, small voice. Pepper's heart breaks at how frightened Steve is and she caresses his small face as a mean of comfort.

"Don't be scared, it's okay sweetie. I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise." Steve's eyes glance over to the other four men in the room worriedly before looking back at Pepper, his nonverbal communication speaking loud and clear for her. "They aren't either. They are nice people." Steve looks unsure, but doesn't question the men's kindness. "My name is Pepper. What's yours?" she asks to make sure Steve was okay, his mind anyway.

"… Stewen Wogers." He told her with an adorable Brooklyn accent and all the men in the room shifted nervously.

"How old are you?" Pepper asked the toddler. The toddler looked up at her and he looked like he was thinking really hard, trying to remember how old he was. A small smile spreads across his face and he holds up two fingers. Pepper smiles at his enthusiasm to tell her his age.

"Who do you live with Steve? And where?" Pepper asks continuing to question him.

"Mama and papa." Steve replies. And as if suddenly remembering something, the young child looks expectantly up at Pepper, "Where my mama?" He asks quietly, his small voice seeming to get even smaller. "Where is I?"

Biting her bottom lip she glances back at the boys, unsure of how to answer Steve. They seem as confused and unsure as Pepper so when Bruce shakes his head, Pepper decides to revert the conversation somewhere else.

"Steve, do you remember anything? What happened before you woke up here?" Pepper asks indicating the entire tower. At first she's afraid that Steve will say yes, but she sighs in relief when the young boy shakes his head. "What's the last thing you remember?" Pepper presses before Steve has a chance to ask about his mom again. Steve thinks long and hard about the question, his little face scrunched up and mouth pressed in a firm line. He shakes his head.

"Mama." He says longingly. Biting her bottom lip Pepper sighs and looks nervously at the men before back at Steve.

"Steve, your mom is not here." Pepper admits. "She's going to be away for a while."

"No mama." He asks frowning slightly and looking like he's about to cry. Pepper is quick to tighten her arms around him and rock him back and forth. "Mama no want me."

"No, no sweetie. No she does want you, she's just not here right now. But it's okay. Your gonna stay with us for a little bit. We'll look after you and we will protect you to make sure nothing bad happens, okay?"

"… Otay." Steve replies. Pepper hugs him to her chest and shushes him softly, standing up to rock him. Steve wraps his legs around her waist and digs his fingers into the slick fabric of her shirt. Turning his head he buries his face into the crook of her neck and yawns.

"Sleep." Pepper orders, sitting back down on the bed upon noticing the exhausted child. Laying him down on the bed he whimpers and shakes his head no.

"Uppy?" He asks.

"No, sleep on the bed." Steve frowns and makes grabbing gestures in the air,

"With me?" Looking up at the men they all take a step back from the bed and Clint's hand hovers slightly above the door knob. Pepper opens her mouth to object, but a lone tear runs down Steve's face making her stop. Sighing sadly she nods her head and lays down on the bed, Steve instantly going to curl into herself. Pepper's arms wrap around him instantly to pull him closer and once he's burrowed into her side, she runs her head continuously through his head. Steve would've been asleep immediately if his gaze hasn't been caught by the four men still standing by the door. He stare at them, uncomfortable with them staring at him. He points the men out to Pepper before burying his face in her hair and wincing slightly.

"Guys, why don't you wait outside? I'll be with you in a moment." The boys were more than happy to oblige to the CEO's orders and left the room as fast as they can. "It's okay now, they're gone. Go to sleep."

It wasn't long before the CEO walks out of Steve's room and into the common room with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "Explain." She orders the four men.


	3. Chapter 3

"Explain."

The room goes quiet as Pepper's voice cuts through the conversation of the four men. The sound of her voice made them go mute instantly. Bruce opens his mouth to explain to the steaming CEO, "Pepper-" but she quickly raises a finger up to the scientist, both halting and silencing him.

"No, not you, Bruce." She says, her gaze directly on the inventor. "You." She crosses her arms and taps her foot impatiently, glaring at the silent inventor.

But before Tony has a chance to say anything, Clint stands up, loudly clapping his hands. "Well, since you don't need me and I'm tired as fuck, I'm gonna go take a

"Yeah, and I've got work that needs to get done." Bruce mutters, using his work as an excuse to leave the room.

Thor seems almost as relieved as Clint and Bruce as he gives Pepper his own defense, "I believe Lady Jane requested my presence in New Mexico and as I cannot deny her that, I shall be on my way as well." The three men make a dash for the door, and they make it through the hallway and almost onto the elevator. Almost. Pepper calls them back, an eyebrow raised in their direction, speaking through gritted teeth.

"Don't. You. Dare." The men freeze immediately, their backs still turned towards the CEO and genius. They hold their breath and mentally curse themselves for not being quick enough.

"Don't think you guys are off the hook just because Tony has to explain. Get back here." Sighing in defeat, the men take their previous positions in the living room; Thor standing warily near the kitchen door, Bruce perching on the arm chair and Clint sitting on the floor, nervously fiddling with his hands. Pepper nods at them before turning back to Tony, obviously irritated at him. It's hushed for a long moment, Tony staying silent, the other three superheroes afraid that if they speak Pepper will yell at them again. It's a while before Pepper sighs and demands,

"Talk, Tony."

Tony laughs nervously, his hand subconsciously going to the back of his neck. Biting his bottom lip, the billionaire meets his girlfriend's stern gaze, and gulps slightly. "Well, Pep. Um… as you can tell, the kid currently drooling and sleeping on Steve's bed is the super soldier himself. 5 days ago he was accidentally turned into a toddler. Now we're kinda stuck with him until we figure out how to change him back." Pepper's slaps a hand onto her forehead shaking her head in exasperation, a suddenly tired look in her eye.

"Be more specific, Tony." She orders.

"Fine," Tony takes a deep breath and extends it over his entire speech. "Five days ago, Steve was in the Gym and I'd just finished the project I'd spent a few weeks working on. Remember, the one you said I should take a break on? Anyway, I called him up, told him I had something for him and did a little experiment on him with the machine. It was originally supposed to be a machine to transport anything Steve had missed since his 70 year 'disappearance' into his brain instantly, but I guess something malfunctioned. Either a part broke down or I miscalculated, but after the experiment, all that was left was a pile of his clothes. And right in the middle of the clothes stood that kid." Tony finishes, panting slightly, looking up at Pepper with huge innocent eyes and a goofy smile.

"Tony, what did you do?" She whispers, shaking her head. Tony opens his mouth to both question and argues her sudden accusation, but with the help of a stern look from the strawberry- blonde, he decides it is best to remain silent. Tony understands that everyone has their limits, and he'll always try to overdo it and push them over their limits, but there are a very few people he knows not to taunt. And those few are the two redheads that live in the same tower as him, know how to kick ass and have easy access to weapons.

Frowning, Tony sighs, "I was only trying to help the big guy get more acquainted with today's technology and it sort of backfired. Now Captain America is a drooling, disgusting 2 two year old."

"He's not disgusting, Tony." Pepper argues, shaking her head and rubbing circles into her temples. "I can't believe you could be so reckless… Where's Natasha?"

Clint huffs, frowning at the thought of his partner. "She had a mission in England for two weeks. Left 5 days ago and Steve's been crying ever since. You'd think that kid was attached to her or something."

"Either that or he's obsessed with women with red hair." Tony replies motioning to his girlfriend, who's still standing in the front of the room, her eyes now locked on Bruce.

"Bruce, is there a way to turn Steve back? And will he remember anything that has happened?"

"I'm not sure," the doctor replied, taking off his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt. "There's no way to tell if he'll remember and there is a way to reverse the effects. Tony and I just have to find a way to turn him back, but, unfortunately, that could take months."

"You guys can't take care of a child for months. You guys can barely take care of yourselves, especially you." Pepper sighs, looking over at Tony. Tony frowns at her, but doesn't say anything, because he knows she's absolutely right. He smiles sheepishly up at her, "And that's where you come in." He says hesitantly, a hopeful glint in his eyes. His sheepish smile is soon wiped off his face by the shake of her head.

"Oh no, no, no and no. This is your mess, so you have to deal with it." Pepper frowned at the billionaire.

"But I can't! Like you just said, I can barely take care of myself. I'll probably mess the kid up completely! Besides, he doesn't even like me." Pepper turns away from Tony, ignoring his protests. She looks over her shoulder at him,

"I've got to go back to California, Tony. I'll see you guys in a month."

"A month! No! Pepper you can't go!" Clint screams at her, reaching out and tightly grabbing her wrist. "We need you, you're the only one who could possible keep Steve alive. You and 'Tasha, but she won't be back for another week and two

"Please, Lady Pepper, you cannot leave the child Steven in our hands. We desperately need your assistance." Thor begs."Yes, we need you, Pepper!" Bruce enthusiastically agrees with the other two, leaving Tony as the only man who hasn't admitted to his desperation. Pepper turns her attention to Tony, a smug smile on her face as she waits for his response. Tony simply remains silent, his hands clasped together in front of him, nonverbally begging her to stay. "Well, Tony…" Pepper urges, waiting patiently for her boyfriend to admit defeat.

But Tony doesn't, and only rolls his eyes in response. Pepper shrugs. "Oh well. Bye, guys." Shaking Clint's grip off her wrist, she starts walking away.

"Tony, tell her, you freakin' bastard! Admit you need her for once in your life!" Clint howls. Stopping in her tracks, Pepper strains her ears to hear the next thing that comes out of Tony's mouth.

"I need you." He mumbles softly, looking down uncomfortably at his hands.

"What?" Pepper asks, turning around, obviously enjoying Tony's distress.

"I need you, Pepper!" Tony screams suddenly, making the CEO, demigod, archer and scientist jump in surprise. Tony jumps off the couch and drops onto his hands and knees, crawling up to her as fast as he can move. "Okay, I admit it! Is that what you want? For me to get down on my knees and beg for your help? Well, I'm on my knees and I begging for you help. Please, Pep. Don't leave us. We need you and I need you! Please!" It's silent for a long moment, a sly smile spreading across Pepper's face. She pretends to mull over the idea a bit, Tony's eyes on her the entire time and the other three men pretending to busy themselves in their own little tasks, trying not to seem too anxious.

Pepper continues her act until the point when she feels Tony has had enough. "Okay, I'll stay." Tony collapses on the ground, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you." He whispers, closing his eyes. It only takes a couple of minutes for him to entirely knock out and a loud snore soon escapes him. Shaking her head, the CEO looks up at the other three men, about to ask them something, but she stops at the sight spread out before her. Not only had Tony fallen asleep, but the other three as well. Clint lay across the couch, Bruce slumps on the reclining chair and Thor snores on the floor a few feet away from her. "Aw, poor boys. They're exhausted." Slipping blankets over the four bodies, Pepper can't stop herself from taking pictures of all four of them sleeping in her living room. Giggling quietly to herself, she wishes them goodnight and turns off the light heading towards Tony's and her room, checking on Steve as she passes his room.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Steve...Steve wake up. It's time to get up sweetheart. Come on." A soft voice reaches the small child, a hand coming to rest on his small shoulder. The weight of the hand wakes him up from his slumber. Steve hums softly, not aware of his surrounding or the person whose waking him up, only of the soft voice. 'Is that…?' He wonders, the darkness of his drowsiness pulling him back under. "Steve, baby, it's time to get up." Groaning softly, Steve starts to reluctantly break his consciousness, the faded voice getting louder as he wakes up. The tears are almost immediate, springing up in his eyes and slipping down his cheeks. "No, no don't cry. 'Member, I thought you were a big boy. Big boys don't cry when they are being woken." The woman's voice says. Woman?

Steve gasps in surprise.

"Mama." The toddler says, instantly perking up at the sound of his mother's voice. He opens his eyes as soon as he realizes that it's his mother, just to see his mother's face. But the bright light hits his eyes with so much force that he's forced to close them back again, taking only a glimpse of her with him. But the glimpse he saw confused him a lot. 'Mama doesn't have red hair.' Steve thinks to himself, the image of the fiery red hair he glimpsed still clear in his mind. 'Mama has brown hair, not red.' Steve adds as an afterthought, his confusion only growing. He swore he heard his mother's voice, but the quick image he was able to catch confused him, "Mama?" Steve questions, his tiny baby face expressing his confusion.

"What is it, baby?" She asks, leaning over Steve, shielding him from the blinding light. Steve relaxes when the light outside his closed eyes lids darken slightly thanks to his mother and he calms down his rapidly beating heart at the sound of his mother's loving voice.

"Mama." Steve says again reaching his hand out to grab a hold of his mother's hand. He smiles when he feels her soft, warm hand enclose his small, child one. A kiss is pressed to his temple and he turns his head so he can return one of his own kisses on her cheek. A hand is placed on his cheek and, with eyes still closed, Steve whispers "Love you." He leans into her touch.

"I love you too, Steve." She says, laughing at the exhausted baby. "Come on, sweetie, time to get up." She says, shaking his shoulder, urging him out of bed. On instinct, Steve moans and rolls over in the large bed, burying his head in the pillows, trying to block out the sound and light. He burrows deeper into the blankets and is almost asleep again when his mother speaks again, "Oh no, you don't, little man. Time to get up."

"No."

"Don't you 'no, me, Mister. Come on." He's scooped off the bed and into arms that he gratefully snuggles into. Relaxing and laying limply in his mother's arms, Steve rubs his eyes tiredly, snuggling closer to her body. Pressing his face into her shoulder, he takes a deep breath, breathing in her scent.

'Mm.' He loves the way his mother smells. Especially now. Like honey, and apples with a hint of gun powder... wait? Gun power?

Steve freezes, his whole body tensing as he catches a whiff of the unfamiliar scent. 'Mama don't smell like gun powder.' He reminds himself. There has only been one person who has held him since he was born that smelt like gun powder. The pretty red head women that was kind enough to carry him after he woke up from his nap on the couch, surrounded by her and those four boys. Red-headed women? Slowly opening his eyes, one at a time to get used to the sunlight shining through the window , Steve peers up at his 'mother'.

This wasn't his mother.

His breath is hitching in his throat at the sight of the familiar, red-headed woman from days ago. The one with the pretty smile and the soft voice that Steve couldn't seem to get out of his head the past few days. Her arms were soft, and warm and she had the look in her eyes made Steve immediately trust her when he first saw her. He just wanted her to hold him the past few days, but she never came back after handing Steve off to the dark blonde hair guy. He didn't want the blonde haired guy, he wanted her and couldn't get her out of his head. But seeing that the only woman that he was going to get was the other redhead, the strawberry redhead one, he made do.

There was some disappointment at the sight of seeing the redhead women, but also happiness. More of the latter. A big smile spreads across his face which the pretty redheaded women returns, repositioning him so he sits on her hip. She bounces him slightly, and Steve lets out a giggle and wraps his arms around her, gripping the fabric of her shirt tightly. "Pretty red." He tells her, tightening his grip and burying his head in her neck. "Left me."

"I didn't leave you, Steve. I just had to go away for a while, like I do now." Natasha

"No leave. No leave, pretty red." Steve winces, tugging on her shirt sleeve.

"I'm sorry, Steve, but I'll be back. I promise. It's only for a few more days. You just have to be good for the boys and Pepper for me. Do you think you can do that?" She asks gently, sitting down on the couch with him. Steve frowns and shakes his head. "Now Steve, don't be bad. Be a big boy for me, okay?"

"Want you. Not them." Steve says, placing his head on her chest, before lifting it to look up at her. She smiles down at him, brushing the hair out of his face.

"It's only for a few more days. It's okay, Steve." Natasha assures.

"You come back?"

"Of course I will."

"Thank you for being a big boy for me." Natasha says, planting a kiss on his cheek. "Now it's time for you to wake up."

"Wate up?" Steve questions.

"Yep. Wake up, Steve, wake up."

8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Steve, sweetie, it's time to wake up." Steve jumps awake, arms immediately wrapping around him when he sits up in bed. "Hey, it's okay. It's just me. It's just Pepper."

"Peppy?" Steve asks looking up at her.

"That's right. Are you hungry, sweetie?" That's when she sees Steve shift uncomfortably in her arms, a grimace on his face. "What's wrong, Steve?" Steve, even in his baby form, blushes deep red and bows his head, burying it in her chest. "Wet." He whispers from his spot, embarrassed.

Pepper chuckles before scooping the child in her arms, her hand touching his. "Definitely wet."

"It's alright, Steve, you don't have to be embarrassed. You're lucky I went to the store last night. Come on, I'll change you." Scooping him in her arms, Pepper stands with the blushing child and walks out of his room and into the living room where the four men sit eating breakfast and drinking coffee.

The men look up at their arrival, Steve instantly becoming shy and uncomfortable under their stare. Thor gives the small child a thundering "Good morning, Steven!" while the others nod in greeting, not removing their the child bury himself deeper into her body, hiding behind her hair, Pepper tightens her hold on him. Looking up at the men, she turns to Tony and asks, "Can you hold him for a sec.? I need to-"

Pepper frowns at him, "Tony, it's just for a-"

"Tony." Pepper says sternly.

"Read my lips. I'm not touching or holding him." Steve frowns and buries his head in Pepper's shoulder even further. His grip tightens on her shirt and he shakes his head. "Me no wan mean man. Me wan you. No him."

"I have to go and get your diapers, Steve," Pepper says, bouncing the upset child on her hip. "I'll be back though. If you don't want mister meanie," Tony frowns at the new nickname, "who do you want to hold you then?" The three other men in the room freeze in their spot, eyes securely fastened whatever they were currently doing, afraid to make eye contact with the child.

Peeking out of the hair concealing his face, Steve searches for one person in particular. The pretty red head from his dream. Steve desperately wanted her to hold him again, to feel get warm and around him. He likes Pepper, but he wants Natasha. And only Natasha. Steve makes a distressed noise when he doesn't see her and frowns up at Pepper. "I wan pretty red." Steve says.

"Who?" Pepper questions, doing a double take, Steve now gathering the others' attention with his statement.

"Pretty red." Steve says, looking up at Pepper. He doesn't know Natasha's name, but he does know her hair color and if he showed the others what he meant by pretty red, they might be able to get her for him. He takes a moment to gather a fistful of Pepper's hair, careful not to grab too tightly or hurting her as he did. He then points to Pepper's hair, only looking up at her.

When Pepper still looks confused, Steve takes his head out of Pepper's hair to stare at the four men, hoping one of them knew what he was talking about. He points at Pepper's hair again emphasizing his words, "Pretty red." Tugging gently on the strand in his hand, Steve continues, "Hair."

It takes a moment, a long moment, before one of them claps their hand standing up excitedly in his chair. "Natasha!" Clint exclaims, a smile on his face. "He's talking about 'Tasha!"

Steve is startled by the sudden movement and he tries to shrink himself into Pepper's body. Looking down at him, Pepper brushes his bangs out of his face. "Sweetie, are you talking about Natasha? Is she pretty red?" Steve didn't know her name, he didn't even know who she was, but he trusted her.

"I no no." Steve admits. "I no no her name. She held me dough! And playeded wif

"Definitely Natasha." Tony said from his new spot by the coffeemaker. "But Widow is in England."

Looking down at Steve, Pepper gives him a sad smile. "I'm sorry, Steve, but Natasha isn't here right now. She had to go away for a while."

Steve looks down sadly at his hands, his voice going lower, as his mother crosses his mind. "Like mama." He whispers. Pepper feels her heart break as she watches a lone tear slide down his cheek. Even the boys feel sympathetic towards their small teammate. Seeing tiny Steve look so sad made Pepper want to hold him and make sure nothing bad ever happened again. To make sure she'd never have to see that depressed face again.

"Oh no, Steve." Using her thumb she wipes the tear and holds Steve closer, pressing a gentle kiss top his forehead. "Don't cry. No, remember what we said about your mama. We said she'd come back, and until then you'll be staying with us. Natasha will come back sooner than your mama."

"Prwmise." Steve asks, rubbing his eyes before looking up at Pepper with hope written across his face.

"Promise. Would I ever lie to you?" Steve's face lights up like a child on Christmas. Sitting up straight, he leans up and presses a soft kiss on her cheek. He blushes immediately after; something adult Steve never fully grew out of. "Now until she comes back, can you be a good boy for us? Natasha doesn't like bad boys." Pepper persuades, giving the others a look when they start laughing. Steve nods and that's when he remembers his wet 'diaper'. He shifts uncomfortably and makes a disgruntled noise making Pepper remember the task from before. "Oh, that's right, your diaper! Guys, I really need you hold him."

Before any of them can say anything, a tiny finger points in the direction of Bruce. "Doctor holded me?" Steve asks innocently, his blue eyes looking at Bruce. The lab coat that covers Bruce's clothes reminds Steve of a doctor, probably due to the time he'd spent in and out of hospitals during his younger years. And of course he'd want the doctor to hold him rather than the giant, Thor, who sat next to him, the mean looking one, Clint, and the actual meanie, Tony. He'd become more comfortable with them the more time he spent with them. The doctors he had were nice and respectful to him and so he was taught to be respectful as well. Well, as respectful as a toddler can be.

Bruce's eyes widen and he becomes still instantly. The first thing he wanted to do, since hearing Steve say he wanted him to hold him, was scream "No!" as loud as he could. He can feel the shaking terror start in his hands as it slowly makes its way up his arms. For some strange reason his chest hurt, and he didn't why or if he accidentally hit himself in the chest, just that it started hurting. The pressure on his heart getting heavier each passing second until finally it just weighed his heart down. He can hear voices around him and a hand comes to rest on shoulder. A large, heavy hand. Looking over, his body numb, he finds Thor looking at him on concern. "Banner, are you well?" Thor asks.

"Chest...hurts." Bruce manages to get out.

"Breathe, Banner," Clint says, eyes on him. "You're staying to turn blue."

It hasn't occurred to Bruce that he'd stop breathing. Only that his chest hurt. As soon as he sucked in a much-needed breath, the pressure on his heart lightened considerably. Taking a minute, Bruce breaths in the air he'd lost, the room silent until the shaking in his hands had stopped altogether. Then Bruce makes the mistake of looking over at Pepper and Steve, meeting the child's eyes. Steve looks so innocent and his face read worried, another thing that Steve kept with him when he grew to an adult: the concern for others. When meeting Bruce's gaze, the child reaches out to him. When Steve sees Bruce stiffen again, he immediately pulls back, looking like a kicked puppy. As if he did something wrong to offend and frighten the scared scientist. Bruce feels a pang of guilt at Steve's sad expression. Of course he wanted to hold him, but he was just scared. Scared for Steve's safety and his own control.

"Bruce." Looking away from Steve, Bruce's eyes land on Tony. Tony gives him a bit of encouragement. "Go ahead. It's fine, you can pick him up."

"But the other guy-" he starts to say, but Clint cuts him off.

"Fuck the other guy. When was the last time you lost control?"

Bruce bites his bottom lip, "Two years ago."

"When was the last time you destroyed something? Or hurt one of us?"

"Two years ago." He admits sheepishly.

"It's been two years, Bruce. You need to learn how to live a little."

"You'd be doing me a huge favor, Bruce. You just need to hold him for 10 to 15, minutes at the most." Sighing, Bruce looks over at Steve and when the child reaches out to him again, he doesn't flinch. Steve takes this a sign to reach out to him more, a smile on his face. Nodding at Pepper, she places Steve in Bruce's lap, adjusting the confused scientist's arms around the toddler before giving him a thankful look and leaving the room.

Bruce awkwardly holds Steve close to him, but Steve doesn't really seem to care. The baby just leans his back against Bruce's chest and burrowed deeper into the scientist's warm chest. His only thought of the redheaded women, whom he learned her name was Natasha, coming to get him soon. He promises her he would be good for her and he will.


	4. Chapter 4

After a very heated discussion with Fury about Steve's current state, the Director left the Avengers with a censored message- Steve was in the room- stating that Tony better fix this mess or else… Fury didn't finish, trying to be careful of the child watching him with curious eyes, but the other Avengers got the message.

Mini Steve had been with the Avengers for two days since Pepper's arrival and he'd grown very attached to Bruce, following him everywhere. It was clear he wanted to do whatever Bruce did or be held by the gamma ray scientist. Bruce and Natasha were the two Steve attached himself to, but sadly Natasha wasn't there to help Bruce to care for their tiny teammate and the scientist didn't know how to take care of a kid. If it wasn't for Pepper, then Steve would probably be in the same clothes that he had shown up in. Pepper had been so extremely busy the past two days, trying to organize Steve's paper work and medical files, keeping the media out of their business and overall trying to keep Steve alive, that she hadn't had the time to shop for necessary items. But on day three of playing 'mommy', she finally got some luck…

"Okay!" Pepper claps her hands together excitedly. "Time to go shopping." She announces, a huge grin plastered on her face. The three men around her- Thor had returned to Asguard as soon as he could- simultaneously groan. Frowning, Pepper places a hand on her hip and she glares at all of them, "Well, I'm sorry, but as someone who actually cares, I'm getting sick and tired of watching Steve crawl around with nothing on but a diaper. It's been 8 days and none of you have bothered to do so much as find a shirt for him."

"We did give him a shirt! And we do care about him, we just…" Clint starts indignantly, but trails off.

"Don't know how to take care of children." Bruce supplies helpfully.

Raising an eyebrow, Pepper shakes her head. "A shirt that actually fits. Putting one of Steve's old oversized t-shirts doesn't count as clothing. The poor kid has been walking around without proper clothing for eight days. It's high time to go shopping for baby clothes."

"Well, have fun." Tony says, concentrating on the tablet in his hands.

"Excuse me?" Pepper asks in disbelief, her tone warning Tony to stop staring at his computer and pay attention to her. The look in Pepper's eyes makes Tony gulp and visibly shiver.

"I-I… I mean… um…" Tony stutters.

"You mean that since you made Steve become a toddler who needs clothes, you'd be happy to drive me to the store." Pepper says innocently, her eyes giving away her annoyance with him. "You're so sweet, Tony. But you have to stay here and figure out how to change Steve back." She then turns a hopeful glance towards the other two. "Would either of you two like to help me?"

Pepper frowns at the silence that follows her question. Neither Clint nor Bruce volunteer to go. Sighing, she places her hands on her hips, staring at them, waiting expectantly.

They sit like that for more than 10 minutes, Pepper waiting and the others trying to ignore her piercing glare. Seeing that this wasn't going to end anytime soon, Clint decides to just end it. Biting his bottom lip, the archer- against his will- volunteers, not wanting to upset the strawberry-blonde redhead any further. "I'll go."

"Me, too." Bruce agrees defeatedly.

"Great. Let's go. Come on, Steve, we're leaving!" Pepper calls down the hallway, all smiles once more. Soon the others hear tiny little footsteps running down the hallway.

"'m toming, Peggy." Steve's high pitched voice rings from the hallway before the toddler makes it into the room, hurrying to take Pepper's hand. "We go bye-bye."

"Yes, we're going bye-bye." Pepper smiled down at the little boy.

"Booce and C'int toming, too?" Pepper nods her head and smiles as Steve bounces excitedly before launching himself into the archer's arms- Steve had gotten visibly more comfortable with the archer in the three days since Pepper got back. "Tome on C'int! Let go." Steve says, tugging on his shirt. Clint chuckles and tosses the diaper bag to Bruce before placing Steve on his shoulders.

"Okay come on, kiddo." Clint says, bouncing out the door with Bruce and Pepper following closely behind.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"How about this one?" Clint asks, holding up a red-black shirt, jeans and a baseball cap with glasses that match the ones he's currently wearing.

"Very fitting." Pepper says, busy looking through racks, taking a glance at the outfit. "Really, Clint? Matching sunglasses?" Clint smirks and hands Bruce the outfit before walking off, something catching his attention. Bruce takes the little outfit and places it in the buggy. They had been shopping most of the morning and their cart was nearly full of baby outfits.

Steve sat in the child seat of the buggy, strapped in happily, playing with the stuffed Avengers dolls Pepper got him. Steve would occasionally point at something that caught his attention and every time he pointed, Bruce would throw it in, obviously having a little too much fun with Tony's credit card.

Steve, every time he saw other toddlers, he'd offer them kind smiles and, if they smiled back, waved at them. Steve was a natural at making people like him. If only he wasn't so shy.

A few minutes later, Clint came back carrying an assortment of clothes that ranged in theme from shorts, to leather biker jackets. All the shirts he had picked had something either to do with America, Avenger theme, or, of course, birds.

Bruce and Clint were busy cooing over all the baby stuff, testing different styles on the two year while he just sit there and let him. Pepper had the honor of watching and trying to calm Steve down when he got a little hyper. He's still a two year old; they get hyper when they're happy, and when they're hyper, accidents happen. And Steve still processed his super-strength, though on a much smaller scale, so Pepper finds her charge extra hard.

By the time the three made it to the check out, Steve had knocked over a rack of CDs, bent the handle bars of the cart, and tore a couple of clothing items. Before Pepper could start placing the clothing on the counter, Clint shouted, "Wait!"

The archer rushes off without another word down an aisle, only to come back with his arms full of Avenger themed toys.

Bruce raises an eyebrow at the toys in Clint's arms, shaking his head with amusement, "Really, Clint?"

"What? Look, he loves it!" Clint says pointing at Steve, who had excitedly grabbed the first two things that his hands touched: a miniature version of his shield and a bow with plastic arrows.

Shaking her head, a smile spreading across her face, Pepper sighs and takes out her wallet and pays for the shopping expedition."Let's go." She smiles.

After paying for the clothing, Bruce, Clint and Pepper head to the car to go back to the Tower. Happy takes Steve, who's starting to fall asleep, and places him in the car while the others put the clothes in the back.

When everyone is in the car and the shoppers are on the way back to the Tower, Pepper, Happy and Clint make small conversation as Steve sits in his new car seat Pepper had gotten him and Bruce busies himself with watching Steve try to stay awake, his little eyes shutting occasionally only to pop back open. Chuckling to himself, Bruce runs his hands through the child's hair continuously in a soothing gesture. At the calming touch, Steve starts to fall asleep faster and only had enough strength to reach out and grasp Bruce's big hand in his tiny one before he does.

The conversation of the other three dies slowly and soon the only noise in the car is the rumble of the engine. They continue their path towards the Tower and it isn't until minutes later that they have to take a detour from the Tower.

Steve jumps awake at the sound of a phone ringing, his little body jerking upward so fast that his vision becomes blurry. "Booce." Steve winces, reaching out to him, clearly wanting to be held by something warm and comforting.

"I'm sorry for waking you, Steve. It's okay." Steve starts to sniffle and make the hiccup sound he always makes just as he's about to cry. "No, no, no. Don't cry, buddy, it's okay. Just go back to sleep." Bruce pulls out his phone and silences his cell phone. Steve calms down once the shrill ringing is gone, but still insists on Bruce picking him up. Looking over at Pepper, who nods her head and requests Happy to drive a little more carefully. Bruce looks down at Steve and shakes his head smiling, "You're a handful, Steve. And needy, too."

Steve just blushes slightly and squeals happily when Bruce unbuckles his seatbelt. Latching onto the doctor's shoulder, Steve is hoisted into Bruce's lap and is cradled by said man. Steve places his head on Bruce's chest and listens to the comforting rhythm of his heartbeat. It's not the same as Natasha, but it does for the time being.

Within minutes, the young boy is asleep and cradled safely and comfortably against Bruce's chest. Pepper can't help, but give a small 'Aw' at the sight of them. Bruce blushes and brushes his nose against Steve's cheek. Steve smiles at the touch and blindly reaches out to grab Bruce's hand again. Clint watches the whole interaction between the doctor and child, their reactions to each other. He leans over at Pepper, discreetly whispering to her as if not to gather Bruce's attention.

"This is the most calm and collected I've ever seen Bruce."

"Me, too. He'd make a great father someday. If only he'd just trust himself around kids. I'm glad Steve is attached to him now; it'll give him some confidence and faith in himself. He needs it." Pepper agrees, smiling down at the happy sleeping Steve in Bruce's arms. Giving Bruce a small nudge, Clint settles down in his seat quietly whispering to Pepper about the obvious man in front of them

…

Bruce turns, about to take Steve to his room, when his phone starts ringing again, only quieter than the first time. Steve doesn't wake up like the last time, but he does stir a little. Slipping a hand behind him to retrieve his phone, one arm wrapped tightly around Steve, Bruce checks the screen to see who's calling him.

"It's Fury." Bruce says, eyes furrowing in question.

"Hey, Bruce, why don't you give me Steve?" Clint offers, holding out his arms. "I'll put him in bed." Bruce looks like he's about to object, but after a pause just nods his head and carefully passes Steve over. Clint takes the toddler and gives Bruce a nod before walking down the hall, Pepper following. Looking after them until they are out of sight, Bruce finally answers.

"Fury." Bruce greets, putting the phone up to his ear.

"Dr. Banner, we need you to come in. Now." Fury says urgently, his voice hard.

"What is it?" Bruce asks instantly already heading back towards the elevator.

"An agent was crucially injured. and She was shot twice. Once in the lungs, once in the shoulder. She's currently being transported from England." Bruce freezes, nearly falling over from shock. _She? England?_

_No._

"Natasha." Bruce breathes.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Okay, little buddy," Clint says, placing Steve down on the bed. "Had a long morning. We all need a nap." Clint takes off Steve's shoes and socks and the oversized shirt he wore, leaving him just in his diaper. Steve barely even notices, way too far under to even be cautious of those around him. Pepper walks in the room, carrying a small blanket and the stuffed Avenger themed dolls they got him.

"Here, Steve. I found this in Tony's stuff, which I intend to question him about." Pepper says, already placing the small blanket on the baby and surrounding the dolls around him, making sure the Black Widow and Hulk doll are directly on either side of him on purpose. Clint can't help but let out a small laugh.

"JARVIS, take a picture of this." After a quick flash in the room, Clint and Pepper turn to leave, but they are stopped in their tracks by a pale faced Bruce standing in the doorway. Upon noticing his pale skin and worried expression, Clint walks up to him and grips his arm tightly. "What is it, Banner?" He questions urgently.

"Natasha." Bruce says, urgently motioning for them to follow. Outside the hallway, Bruce closes Steve's door and turns his attention on the anxious CEO and the waiting archer. "That call was from Fury. He said that Natasha is on her way from England, but only because she was injured. From what I heard, Natasha was playing her little undercover role. During a discussion with the suspect, he had a handgun with him and Natasha somehow missed it. She was shot twice. I have to go to headquarters and set up for surgery for her arrival."

"Is she okay?" Pepper asks, her eyes wide.

Bruce bites his bottom lip, "I don't know. That's why I have to go."

"Do Tony and Thor know?"

"Yes."

"We're coming to headquarters." Clint announces, already heading down the hallway to the elevator.

"What about Steve?" Bruce asks.

"I'll stay with him." Pepper volunteers. "Just promise to call me as soon as she's out of surgery and let us visit her when we can come see her. I think Steve would like to see Natasha again."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Bruce says, "Give it a few days, just until she's better and recovered. I don't think Natasha would like Steve's first real memory as a child of her to be in a hospital."

"Fine, make sure she's okay, Bruce." Pepper begs to the doctor as he turns and follows Clint into the open elevator.

"I will. Watch Steve." Pepper nods and watches as the elevator close, Clint and Bruce both inside. Biting her bottom lip, Pepper glances at the door that contains a sleeping Steve and another room that contains a large waiting bed with her name on it. She debates on whether she should go lie down in her own bed or join Steve. Finally the latter wins and she climbs into the bed with the small child, smiling to herself when Steve turns on his side and presses his back against her chest. Pressing a kiss to Steve's forehead, Pepper lays her head down and closes his eyes her mind wandering over to Natasha.

_Please be okay._ She thinks to herself, before letting sleep overtake her.


	5. Chapter 5

"Patient's airway is clear; breathing is weak, and slow but not dangerously so. B/P 80/40 and currently dropping. She lost consciousness half hour ago, hasn't woken up since. Pulse becoming more rapid and weaker each passing second. Before becoming unconscious we were able to assess which parts of her body can and cannot move. Hands, feet, legs and one of her arms are currently immobile. We detected no injury to the spinal cord or neck and there was no exit wound in either the lungs or should wound. Bullets are still lodged in there and need removal immediately. First bullet was shot right below the right lung, grazing it."

"Did the lung collapse?" Bruce demands, rushing alongside the gurney holding his teammate, a clipboard in his hands, leading them to the room where Natasha would be operated on.

"No. We were able to seal the wound before air got into the lung. But she-" One of the men replied only to have Bruce cut them off, nodding his head, agreeing.

"Blood transfusion, yes. Thanks to Agent Barton and Mr. Stark, we have some available. You checked all the A, B, C, D, and E's? You've accessed the five critical factors?"

"Every one of them, Dr. Banner."

"What about her shoulder? Where exactly did the bullet hit?"

"Three to four inches down from the top surface of the shoulder and a few inches from the armpit. The subclavian artery and the brachial plexus wasn't harmed or infected in anyway. If the bullet wound is exited safely, Agent Romanoff will still have full control of her arm functions and she will not have trouble using the injured limb after recovery."

"Excellent, I'll take it from here. Thank you." Nodding at the men, who let go of the gurney which goes into a few nurses' hands which steer it through two double doors. Bruce follows, closely shutting the double doors behind him.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Hear anything?" Tony asks, walking into the waiting room with three cups of coffee. Thor and Clint look up at his arrival and the only answer Tony gets a shake of a head.

"Nothing. She's been in surgery for 3 hours. Bruce is trying to access damage done by the wound." Clint explains, his eyes never leaving the floor.

Pressing a heavy hand on his friend's shoulder, Thor offers Clint a smile. "Do not worry, my friend. Lady Romanoff will fight through this difficult time." Clint nods along, his eyes not leaving the room.

"I'm not worried about that, I know she'll be fine. It's just that... Natasha is a very difficult person when she's injured. Always wanting to do things herself despite the injury and won't ask for help. To proud to ask for help. We fight every single time, you saw what happened last time." The two nod in agreement, Tony taking a seat right next to the archer. "Steve will always want Bruce, Pepper and Natasha to hold him or take care of him. Mostly Natasha. And since she's a sucker for kids, she'll do it. How can she if she's injured?"

"So what you're saying is," Tony clarifies, "Widow won't be able to deny our adorable, pint-sized Captain anything he wants while she's in recovery. Therefore making her own recovery longer due to the usage of her injured limbs, which will infuriate her even more." Clint nods. "Well, here's a solution: Keep Steve away from her for the next couple of days. Don't let him come to the hospital. We'll each take turns watching after him at the Tower while the others stay with Natasha and make sure she follows doctor's orders. She'll have a fast recovery then."

Clint snorts, shaking his head. Thor looks at him, confused, "You do not believe Lady Natasha will recover quickly?"

"No, she will." Clint assures, "Stark, your plan is great, just has one minor issue: Natasha won't listen to Bruce or anyone of us. She's stubborn like that."

Tony smirks, taking out a tablet and leaning back against his chair, propping his feet on the coffee table. "She'll listen. Trust me, Barton; I can be twice as stubborn."

Rolling his eyes, Clint mutters under his breath, "Probably even more stubborn." When receiving a glare from the man beside him, Clint busies himself in counting the hospital ceiling tiles while Thor flipped through magazines, starring at it confusedly before letting out a huge laugh at whatever he read.

The boys get comfortable, knowing they're going to be there for a while.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

Steve jumps awake with a sharp intake of breath, eyes wide and sweat running along his hairline. His hands ball into fists, taking as much as the blanket as they can hold. Pressing the blanket to his chest, Steve heaves heavily, trying to suck in some much needed air as his chest tightens every passing second. He pants, the room starting to feel so small and suffocating that he can't help but start panicking. Not just at the feeling of small confinement space, but at what little of the room he can see.

Darkness surrounds the entire room, except for the bed Steve sits upon. The moon is the only thing eluminating what little of the room Steve can see. At the sight of the darkness, his tiny body immediately erupts into shakes, tears running down his face. Whimpers escape him and he looks around furiously for anything familiar, anything that will help ground him. But the room is too dark for him to see anything except the bed he's sitting upon. A shaking tiny hand rises to wipe the streaming tears and his moist cheek, only to have more tears take wet the surface.

He opens his eyes mouth to say something, only to shut it as fast as he opened it. Shaking his head, his face contorts into one of concentration. "Mama aint here." He whispers softly to himself. "Mama go bye-bye now. I's wit Peppy, C'int, Booce and Ony." He sounds as if he's trying to console himself, but all the calmness he'd manage to collect goes out the window at the sound of thunder roaring outside his window.

Jumping from the sound, Steve practically falls off the bed, but catches himself before he can completely topple off. He tries to hoist himself back on the bed, but fails immensely and ends up falling off anyway. Landing on his diapered bottom, Steve can't help the loud wails that escape his mouth. His booty may have been protected from the diaper covering it, but the landing still sent a harsh pain up the small child's back. Laying on his side, Steve cries out loudly, hoping someone would come get him. Mostly preferably Natasha, but knowing she's not here, he's waiting for Bruce to come and get him like he always did when he heard Steve crying. Steve stays there for what felt like hours, but was only a couple of seconds before arms encircled him. He clings tightly to the arms around his body and as soon as he's raised to rest against their chest, he lays his head on their chest, instantly putting a thumb in his mouth.

"Steve, are you alright? Sweetie, what happened? How did you fall?" Pepper's concerned, soothing voice says softly, as she rocks the sobbing Captain in her arms. Steve calms down slightly at the sound of her voice, but continues to cry, the pain not entirely gone. His hold on Pepper tightens and he buries his face in her shoulder, shaking his head.

"A'one." Steve only says sniffling, his nose running from crying. Pepper cringes slightly because of the sounds Steve is starting to make. It's the awful gagging sound that he makes just as he's about to hyperventilate. Her heart breaks and she can't help, but quickly comfort him tightening her own grip on him.

"No, no, no Steve. You're not alone. I was here the entire time. I just stepped out so I can get your dinner ready. I was always here. I thought you were asleep."

Shaking his head Steve answers, "Bad dweam," in a small voice, ducking his head further into Pepper's body. "I wan Booce," his muffled voice says from inside her shoulder.

"Bruce isn't here right now. Remember I said he had to go somewhere for a little bit, but he'll be back tomorrow morning?"

"I wan him now." Steve winces, tears falling from his eyes as his grip on Pepper tightens. "I scared." She cups the back of Steve's head, walking out of the room and into the hallway, rocking him softly, shushing him. Walking into the kitchen, Pepper switches her hold on him and his position.

Sitting on her hip, Steve places his head back in the crook of her neck, wrapping his arms around her neck. "Hey, hey, look at me." Pepper gives Steve's shoulder a little nudge, but he doesn't move an inch. "Steve, sweetie look at me. I'm here right here, and I'm not going anywhere." It takes a while before two small blue eyes peek up at her from her his spot at her shoulder. She smiles at him before running a hand through his curly blonde locks. "What did you dream about?"

"… 'Bout 'Tasha. Dat she'd gots hurt nd I ca't seed her ." Steve puts his head back in Pepper's shoulder, but is forced to look back up when he feels the body beneath him suddenly still. The expression on Pepper's face made him look at her confusingly. Placing a hand on her cheek, he taps it gently. "Peppy." He calls to the women, whose skin pales drastically. "Peppy." Steve's voice rises slightly, his bottom lip starting to wobble. Pepper doesn't respond, but her grip on him tightens slightly. Shaking her shoulder, Steve pulls back from her chest, wincing softly from the harsh hold she has on him. "Peppy." He winces, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout.

As soon as Steve starts fussing and complaining, Pepper shakes her head to clear her thoughts, before centering them around the boy in her arms. "Um… it's okay. It was… i-it was just a dream. It wasn't real." Pepper cooed, lying through her teeth. "Come on," she changes subject quickly when Steve's mouth opens to say more. "Are you hungry? I made you dinner."

"Din-Din?" Steve asks, looking around.

Pepper smiles and places him in a booster seat- due to how small he was Steve needed a booster in order to see the table top. "Yes din-din." Turning back to the kitchen counter, Pepper finishes cutting up the fresh fruits and puts his small portion of spaghetti on a plate for him. Bring it back to the table, she takes a seat beside him and watches as he picks at his food, taking tiny bites until only three mouthfuls were left and a few pieces of fruit.

Running a tired hand across his face, he lets out a long yawn before reaching his hands out to Pepper, eyelids dropping slightly. "Tired." He mutters. Taking him in her arms, Pepper places Steve on her lap, letting him rest his head on her chest.

Brushing her hand through his soft tiny curls, Pepper stands with the tired child, switching her holding position on him, walking out of the kitchen. "You want to go to bed?"

"No. Me wan you. No bed. I sweep wit you in your bed." Biting her bottom lip, Pepper's about to object until Steve places a hand on her cheek, looking at her with big, blue, pleading eyes. "Pwease, Peppy, I wan asweep wit you." Pulling on her arm sleeve, Steve's eyes fill with tears, resting his head on her shoulder, putting his thumb in his mouth. "Pwease…"

"… Okay. Come on, you can sleep with me." Taking Steve to her bedroom, she places him under the covers before turning around to go get ready for bed. Steve's hand instinctively reaches out and grabs whatever he can which happens to be her shirt. Looking back at him, Pepper can see the fear evident in his eyes. "I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be back, I promise." Reaching his arms out to her, and no matter how much it killed her to do so, Pepper has to pry herself away from him. "I'll be back in a minute. I swear." She whispers to him, walking into the bathroom, trying to ignore the winces and whimpers coming out of the child in her bed.

Getting ready for bed, Pepper can't help, but notice how needy and clingy Steve is. Not that she's complaining. She can't help, but wonder 'Are all babies like this? Or was Steve's childhood nothing like the museum set it out to be? Was he always so needy and clingy because he was scared?' Millions of questions run through her head, and by the time she opens the door she's overwhelmed. Instead of dwelling on them for much longer, she joins the exhausted child who had long stopped crying and had taken to sleeping. He is almost asleep by the time Pepper slides into bed with him and when he feels her beside him, he turns on his back and- like earlier that day- presses up against her chest. Unlike earlier that day, Pepper doesn't hesitate to put her arm around his small waist and bring him closer, burying her face in his hair. "Go to sleep." She murmurs softly, a smile spreading across her face when Steve presses a soft kiss to her wrist. Soon enough both are sound asleep, wrapped in each other's warmth and comfort.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

It's a couple hours later when the others see Bruce again. Clint jumps to his feet at the arrival of the doctor and Tony and Thor follow suit.

Clint starts immediately, "Bruce how is she? Is she okay? What-"

Holding a hand up to him, effectively cutting him off, Bruce walks closer into the room up to the three standing figures. He gives them a small smile, the smile seeming to take all the tension out of the room. The three men visibly relax and Tony plops back in his chair, rubbing his hands tiredly. "She's alright." Bruce says to everyone, but mostly to the anxious archer right in front of him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone! (: I just wanted to thank you all so much for the support you've been giving me and the wonderful reviews for my story. I'm glad you all are enjoying this story about as much as I am writing it. You guys are the reason I continue writing this story and I must say you guys have some really great and inspiring suggestions. I love hearing about them and, for some of you, I've already asked to use some for the story. I already have an idea for how this story is going to be, but I love reading about the suggestions you have. Some are really creative and I love them with all my heart.**

**So if you would like to see something happen in this story, I would be more than happy to take ideas from you guys. If you have suggestions Review or PM me and I will try my best to put it to your expectations.**

**Thank you all so much again! And I hope we speak again real soon. Now here's Chapter 6 of "My Boy" (: Much L.O.V.E to you all!**

**-CaptainRogersGirl0829**

Even when reassured by the small smile their friend gave them, nothing calmed their nerves more than those three words. The three simultaneously sighed in relief, Clint's shoulders visibly drop, but his face stay blank despite his body language. Thor breaks out into a huge grin.

"This is wonderful news!" Thor exclaims happily and loudly making Bruce cringe. After being gestured to lower his volume, Thor's voice comes out soft and soothing surprisingly for someone his size and strength. "Miss. Potts and young Steven will be so relieved!"

Clint's and Tony's eyes widen slightly before Tony stands and pats Thor's bicep playfully. "Thor, buddy, remember what we were discussing earlier." Looking down at his face curiously, Thor cocks his head to the side in confusion. Tony and Clint were so absorbed in the conversation happening between them, the two hadn't noticed that Thor wasn't paying attention. At first he started to, but then he drifted off a thoughtful look in his eyes, something the team picked up on when living with the big guy for a year. When he was utterly and completely confused, Thor would tune out whatever the others would say and would usually ask Steve to elaborate what he missed. He would have a lost look in his eyes before it would be covered with a thoughtful look as if not to let the others know he didn't understand. But the others already knew he didn't and Steve wasn't there to elaborate. Rolling his eyes slightly, Tony shakes his head playfully, "And I thought I was the one that never paid attention."

"You aren't." Clint and Bruce both mutter earning a glare for their response, but Tony speaks as if he never heard them.

"Thor, Steve isn't to know about Natasha. And Natasha isn't to be near Steve." Tony says slowly watching Thor's facial expression. The God's eyebrows crease in confusion, a hand coming to rest on his chin.

"Why ever not? The child has been yearning to see Lady Romanoff and now that she is back in thee, what you call states, he can."

"That's true, but you've got to understand that Natasha is an independent women. You know that she hates being pampered and helped around; right?" Tony asks. Thor nods his head enthusiastically happy to let the others know he understands that part. "Well because of that, if Steve knows she's here that's the only person he'll want to take care of him for the next couple of days. How can Natasha do that if she's injured?"

"She cant." Thor muttered, realization dawning on his face. "But she'll try."

"Exactly," Clint butts in. "And when she tries, she'll make her recovery time longer than usual."

"I now see. Then yes, the most reasonable solution is to keep young Steven away from her." Thor agrees.

"Easier said than done my friend." Clint replies turning his attention back to Bruce. "So what happened? How was the surgery?"

"Surgery was successful." Bruce says with a relieved smile. "We were able to get the two bullets out without any complications. We stopped the internal bleeding and blood transfusion were helpful or else she'd have bleed to death." Bruce peeks a glance at everyone's pale faces and stiffen body. "_But_," He emphasizes "she didn't. She has a breathing mask on at the moment due to the bullet grazing it slightly, but not dangerously so. She's awake, but a little out of it now because we had to give her more doses of anesthesia than normal because of the serum-"

"Can we see her?" Clint interrupts eyes glancing back and forth from the door to his friend.

Bruce is taken back by the interruption, but nods his head anyway shrugging. "Of course, room 241. Level 2, but it's a two person limit in the room." Clint walks away from the others, past Bruce and into the hallway towards Natasha's room completely ignoring him.

"Well it looks like birdbrain is one of the two people. Thor do you want to see Little Red?" Tony asks. Thor is about to reply when Bruce cuts him off,

"Actually I think someone should go relieve Pepper off of baby duty. She really wants to see Natasha." Bruce looks over at Tony, but Tony just shakes his head backing away slightly.

"Don't look at me." Sighing, Bruce rolls his eyes and looks over at Thor a pleading look in his eyes.

"I shall go retrieve Miss. Potts."

"And stay with Steve." Bruce adds as Thor walks towards the entrance of the hospital. Nodding, Thor leaves the hospital without another word. Bruce watches him leave out of sight before turning his attention back to Tony.

"Well Dr. Banner, lead the way." Tony says gesturing for Bruce to walk. Chuckling, Tony and Bruce walk through the double doors leading into the hallway.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Miss Potts," JARVIS's voice speaks throughout the floor startling Pepper slightly. Jumping from her spot, Pepper quickly places a hand over her heart and breathes deeply trying to calm her fastening heart beat. It had been so quiet on the floor that she'd forgot that JARVIS could speak to her at any moment. And because of the previous silence, the AI's voice sounded much too loud for her taste.

"JARVIS please lower your volume, Steve is still asleep." Pepper requests in a low voice.

"Of course, my apologies. I'm not really accustomed to having a child in the Tower." JARVIS replies, his voice much lower than before.

"What is it?" Pepper asks turning her attention to her task before JARVIS scared her.

"Mr. Odinson is outside your door. Shall I just let him in?" Soon after there is a harsh knock on the penthouse door that alerts Pepper of his presence.

"No it's okay. I'll let him in." Walking out of the kitchen, grabbing her stuff on the way, she walks up to the door. Opening the door, Pepper offers the man standing on the other side a smile. "Hello Thor."

"Why I bid you a good morning Miss. Potts. How did you sleep?" Thor booms entering when Pepper opens the door even further.

Placing a hand in front of her lips indicating him to be quieter Pepper replies, "Well, very well. Thank you so much for watching him Thor."

"It's no trouble." Thor replies modestly waving away her thanks. "Steven and I will have a great time together. Give Natasha words of encouragement for her recovery for me."

"I will. I'm just going to check up on Natasha, make sure she's okay. I'll only be gone a little bit." Pepper says, a smile on her face as she stands by the door, bag in hand and phone in the other.

Thor beams at the smiling women, clapping a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Do not worry Miss. Potts, Steven and I will have a swell time together."

"I made breakfast. All you have to do is serve him it. Diapers are in the cabinet. Clean clothes are in the dresser in his room and Steve had a nightmare last night so he's going to be a little clingy. Don't forget that you cant be loud and hyper, you'll scare him because of how big you are Thor." Pepper reminds the demi- god as he nods his head understandably. "Tell him I will only be gone for a little bit. He gets scared when you tell him I went away and he'll start crying." Nodding Thor gives her a gentle nudge towards the door.

"Goodbye Miss. Potts."

Giving him a sheepish grin, Pepper nods her goodbye before turning and heading towards the elevator. Shaking his head Thor goes to check on Steve whom is currently curled into a tight ball, blanket wrapped securely around him and pillow tight against his chest fast asleep. The child's face has a small smile relaxing Thor slightly of his concern for his young teammate. Walking into the room, Thor adjusts the pillows and blankets around him before pressing a light hand on Steve's shoulder. "Sleep well Steven. You will be able to reunite with Lady Romanoff soon."

Unbeknownst to him and Pepper, Steve was already awake and had been for a couple of minutes. He had seen the entire interaction between the God and CEO and ran back to his room before anyone could see him- anyone being Thor.

'Peppy gone to see 'Tasha. 'Tasha back fom being 'way. And T'or saided dat I can seed her again soon! Ho-pefu- lly, ' Steve thought working around the big word, 'soon is not long.' His thoughts start to get blurry and hazy due to the sleepiness starting to get to him. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Steve takes a deep breath and is out like a light again with the thought of seeing the pretty redhead lodged deeply in his mind.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Hey little Red." Tony greets with Bruce and him join the two super spies in Natasha's recovery room. The redhead lays on the bed with a few wires attached to her arm and breathing mask on her face. She flicks her hand up as a sign of acknowledgement and nods her head in greeting. "Cat got the tongue, huh?" Tony jokes. "Or should I say, mask got the tongue? Get it? Breathing mask, you cant speak so you…" Tony trails off at the glare he gets from said women and just nods his head not even bothering to change the subject like he usually does.

Chuckling, Bruce walks past him and towards Natasha's files and machines checking over his patient. "How you feeling Natasha?"

Natasha mumbles something under the breathing mask earning three confused glances. Rolling her eyes irritated, she raises a hand to lift up the mask slightly knowing if she removed it completely she'd get hell from the others in the room. "Torso hurts like hell, but nothing like I've never felt before and my arm feels a lot better than hours ago."

"Well it's going to hurt for a little longer. But anyway, you have to stay here for about-"

"Nope. Not going to do it. I'm leaving now." Natasha says trying to get out of bed, but Clint and Bruce stop her.

"You still need to recover." Bruce starts, but Natasha cuts him off shaking her head.

"Recover my ass. Barton help me." Natasha orders, but before Clint can touch her Bruce injects something into her water bag. Staring up at him in disbelief, Natasha asks with a clenched jaw, "What did you just put inside me?" Bruce just smiles at her and writes a couple of notes down before gesturing for Tony and Clint to leave. "Banner? What did you-"

"Have a nice nap Miss. Romanoff. I will be back to check on you in a little bit." Bruce says watching as Natasha's eyes start to get droopy, her body starting to go limp beneath her. Natasha would've said something back, but the lack of energy she possess only gave her enough to flick off Bruce before everything turned dark…

The next time Natasha opens her eyes, she's alone and it's quiet unlike before she fell asleep. The room is dark and silent and the only light in the room are the monitors on either side of her. She welcomes the silence greatly, but soon her happiness turns into annoyance. Natasha's taken back by the horrible condition her eyes are in. For almost three minutes her eyes are hazy and unfocused and she cant help, but growl irritated as she tries to get her vision back together.

Hating being blind and vulnerable, Natasha reaches a hand out to grab onto something to steady and ground herself. Natasha hates this feeling, this feeling of weakness, and right now, without any vision and wires hooking into her body, is the most vulnerable she's ever been when awake. Normally Natasha's in a coma for a couple of days to wake up only to have one or two wires inserted in her, but now she's left feeling what she hates feeling.

Once she gets her vision back into place, after a quick look around the room, a single word escapes her lips subconsciously. "Steve." She looks around instantly for the familiar blue eyed, blonde hair child. Frowning upon not finding him missing, a thought comes to mind and a mischievous smile spreads across her face. She's alone and it's empty. No bodyguards to make she stays in bed and no one to stop her from leaving the room and going back to the Tower. That part will be easy, getting out of the room, but making sure not to pass anyone on the way out of the hospital and getting a lift to the Tower posses a problem.

Panting slightly, Natasha struggles to get into a sitting position without hurting herself or ripping her stitches. Once in one, her hands immediately rise to touch her face and are relieved to feel that there is no breathing mask anymore, unlike when she was first drugged... '_Drugged' _The word instantly flares up into her mind. Along with another, but instead this one is a name. "Banner." She growls shaking her head.

Tossing her feet off the bed, Natasha slowly gets to her feet gripping the wall for support. Making her way around the room and into the corner of the room where she finds her old clothing, she grabs them and heads into the bathroom. Minutes after, she walks out of the bathroom after peeking into the room and finding it still empty. She slowly makes her way to the door, using the wall for support, taking it deep breath before letting it out and opening the door.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

It takes Natasha approximately 30 minutes to escape SHIELD's medical quarters and a couple more to get a taxi. 20 more minutes than usual if she wasn't wounded and if she didn't have to pass a few guards guarding the elevator and front door. She didn't hurt them, just knock them out so they wouldn't give away her location. But she's finally here. At the Tower, inches away from holding the two year old child that has been occupying her mind for the past week and day. No matter what she was doing or where she was, blue eyes would always enter her thoughts and she couldn't help, but think about the child waiting for her at the Tower. Now they don't have to wait any longer.

Riding up the elevator, leaning against the wall, Natasha takes a deep breath and clothes her eyes. '_First a quick shower than I'll go see him.'_ Natasha says repeatedly in her mind ready to head to her room first. But as soon as the elevator doors open she catches a sight of Thor sitting on the couch watching TV. He turns at the sound of the elevator door opening, but Natasha had slipped out and into the hallway before he could see her. Staring at the elevator confusedly, Thor looks up at the ceiling,

"Man in wall," Thor starts. "Have the others arrived back?"

"No Mr. Odinson." JARVIS replies smoothly after Natasha sent, the closest one of JARVIS's camera, the most heated glare she conjure up at the moment with the message and threat clear on her face. 'You tell him I'm here and I'll cut your circuit board short, just like I did last time.' "Malfunction in the system. Nothing to worry about."

Nodding in understandingly, Thor turns his attention back to the TV. "And what of Steven?"

"Young Captain Rogers is currently still asleep in Miss. Pott's and sir's bedroom." Smiling in relief, Thor gets caught too much into what he's watching on TV, happy with the reply he got from the AI. Sighing in relief, Natasha walks down the hallway heading for Tony's and Pepper's bedroom feeling too exhausted to go and take a shower.

Stopping right in front of the room, Natasha glances down the hall for anyone before slipping in without being noticed. Closing the door silently, Natasha turns around her breath hitches in her throat as she looks at the small figure occupying the large king sized bed. "Steve…" she whispers, the wind having been knocked out of her lungs. It had so long since she'd seen the toddler and she hadn't realized until now how much she had missed him. Walking slowly up to the bed, Natasha hesitantly reaches a hand down to brush back Steve's blonde curls from his face. Steve's body jerks upward at the sudden touch of Natasha's fingers- which makes Natasha halt her motions-, but he doesn't stir or push away her hand- which encourages her to continue the swift motion. The corner of Steve's lips turns upward at her finger's touch making her smile despite the pain she's feeling in her right shoulder. "Your so big." She whispers even more softly now that she's only a few inches away from the child. She bends down and presses a kiss to Steve's forehead. And, because she cant help herself any longer, she slips in between the covers laying right next to the child. As if Steve already knew who was laying next to him, he turns onto his side and presses his tiny back against Natasha's chest. Smiling down at him, her arm immediately encircles his waist pulling him even more closer before pressing a kiss to his cheek. Resting her head on the pillow beneath her, Natasha fall asleep laying right next to the sleeping toddler in her arms.

**Dedicated to ArrowsIronJr!(: Hope this is what you were looking for! Much L.O.V.E**


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you mean you lost her!?" Pepper screeches storming into the Avenger's common room, her furious gaze landing on the three boys in front of her, excluding one of them one purpose. The three look up at her expectantly with guilty expressions, the worst being Bruce who looks on the verge of tears.

"P-Pepper um… we- we'll I-I," The poor scared doctor stammers, a hand coming to take his glasses of his face. He wipes the glasses on the hem of shirt to buy him time, his feet tapping impatiently and his face contorting into worry. "You s-see.. we- we-"

"Pep. your giving Banner a heart attack." Tony points out putting a reassuring hand on Bruce's shoulder. Bruce sits down in the reclining chair, after Tony gives him a pointed look when he starts to pace. Wringing his hands together nevously, Bruce avoids looking up into Pepper's eyes and takes for staring at the living room carpet. Looking over at Pepper, he shrugs off her fury and continues speaking, "He cant help stress remember. Don't be mad at him, it wasn't his fault. His job was to save Little Red from dying and he did it perfectly. It was not his job to watch over her while she recovers. That job fell upon birdbrain and I. So if you need someone to blame, I will correctly show you who is at fault for this… It was m- Clint!" Tony says stopping himself from saying me and pointing a finger at the archer that stares at him in disbelief.

"Hey!" Clint shouts, but Pepper's voice overpowers his completely,

"Tony, you and I both know that from the minute you said Clint you were lying." Pepper says, her face starting to turn red as she stalks up towards him. Backing away from her with every step she takes, Tony places his hands out in front of him as if to protect himself. "Now. Tell. Me. The. Truth." Pepper demands through gritted teeth.

Sighing in defeat, Tony bites him bottom lip nervously trying to search for words. Words that won't anger his girlfriend more. The first thing that pops in his head is, 'Hey Pep, so yeah, I technically lost little Red because it was my turn to watch her, but I got distracted and left the room for a second. And when I came back, she was gone.' But he knew that explanation wouldn't sit well with Pepper. And would get him in even more trouble than he already was. The look on her face already sends chills down his spine.

Chuckling nervously, Tony offers Pepper a sheepish smile. "I would just like to say," he starts. "That you left me in charge of a spy. One that could've easily slit my throat if she wasn't so injured-"

"That makes it even worse Tony!" Tony jumps at Pepper's sudden exclamation and interruption. "She was injured and needed help waking. How could she gave gotten out of your line of sight if you were suppose to be watching her?"

Tony's response is so quiet, so inaudible, Pepper has to ask him to repeat it. "... I got distracted." He says louder shifting uncomfortably.

"Clearly," Pepper scoffs shaking her head. "Tony I can't believe-"

" ."

"You could be so irresponsible. What were you thinking. You know Natasha is as stubborn as you and yet you let her out of your sight. I knew-"

"Miss. Potts."

"We shouldn't have left her in your care." Pepper concludes, JARVIS' s voice going over her head not even hearing the AI trying to get her attention. Tony, also not hearing JARVIS, is quick to his defense trying to keep Pepper from putting all the blame on him. He already felt guilty enough.

"Now hold on a minute. This could've easily happened to anyone of us."

"But it didn't, it happened to you." Pepper says crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look I'm sorry. I just left the room for a couple of minutes. I thought-"

"Sir."

"She was still asleep. How could I have known she would wake up!? It's not ask my fault Pepper!" Tony shout throwing his hand up in the air.

"Really because it seems like you were the one that was supposed to watch her."

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"

"Man of Iron, please kindly refrain from yelling at Miss. Potts. She only means well." Thor interrupts, shifting uncomfortably in the corner of the room where he had stayed quiet throughout Pepper's and Tony's bickering. Only hearing Tony yell at Pepper made him speak up.

"Stay out of this Goldie Locks." Tony demands.

"Tony!" Pepper chastised.

"What he had no business being in this conversation. He probably doesn't even know half the things were saying."

"Watch it. Your walking on thin ice, and insulting Thor isn't going to cover up the fact that you lost one of your teammates. Your team is already vulnerable right now with Steve as a child. Now with Natasha out there with more enemies than I can count, no weapon, nothing to use for protection and two bullet wounds on her, your team is down to four when it was originally six. Your team can't lose another teammate Tony, you need to find her."

"Miss. Potts."

"You should've just stayed with her like you were supposed to do Stark." Clint points out rolling his eyes bouncing his leg nervously.

"So you're siding with her to, huh?" Tony asks raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Going to pin this entire thing on me? You know I wasn't the only one on guard duty."

"Yes, but you were for those three hours. I was before you, Bruce was after you than Thor, and lastly Pepper. Right after her, our rotation should've gone on until Natasha was out of the hospital. But the first day it was established!" Clint shouts.

"Agent Barton." JARVIS says, his annoyance at being ignored layered heavily on his tone of voice. But of course, just as usual, he's ignored. By everyone, not even Bruce and Thor notice the AI speaking.

"So you think your so perfect and innocent. Just because she didn't escape on your watch."

"That's not what he's saying Tony." Bruce butts in fed up with all the arguing.

"Now stop fighting-"

"Bruce I thought you'd be on my side! I knew Thor and Clint would side with Pepper, but not you! You know that I didn't do it on purpose!" Tony practically winces.  
"There are no sides Tony! Your being such a child!" Bruce exclaims shaking his head and rubbing his temples gently.

"Dr. Banner."

"Can't we please just-"

"No we cannot." Tony interrupts childishly and stubbornly.

"Tony." Bruce says sternly.

"Bruce." Tony mocks his time of vice rolling his eyes. "You know what?"

"No, do you know what?" Clint asks rolling his eyes in annoyance. And just like that everyone burst out, practically screaming at each other. Tony trying to defend himself against more than one person blaming him, Bruce and Thor trying to get everyone to stop fighting and Pepper and Clint insulting and blaming Tony. Finally having enough of it, JARVIS does the only thing he knows will get everyone's attention.

"SIR!" JARVIS' s speakers let out a loud piercing static sound making everyone cringe and go silent at the sound. Hands cover ears as the sound seems to gradually get louder until all together it stops. Seeming pleased with gathering everyone's attention, the others detect the sound of relief in JARVIS' s voice when he continues speaking at finally being heard. "Thank you. I apologize for gathering your attention like that, but I thought you'd like to know that Miss. Romanoff is completely fine. She's currently in your room sir during with young Captain Rogers."

At first the room is silent and stock still as everyone processes the information they just heard. The color of their faces seem to come back into place unlike before when they all looked ghostly pale at the thought of something happening to the teammate or her being lost somewhere in the huge city.  
JARVIS has been trying, for the past 20 minutes as they all argued simultaneously some voices louder than others, to get their attention. He had resulted to making such an awful, irritating noise finally giving up hope that someone would shut up long enough to notice him trying to speak.

It takes a couple of minutes for it to process and just as quick as Pepper stormed into the common living room, all five of them rush out of the living room and into the hallway. It's a blur of chaos as the four of the five bodies jerk upward suddenly into a standing position and push their way past each other to go investigate. To see if what JARVIS has said was true. That Natasha wasn't lost and somewhere in New York, injured, trying to get home. The Avengers, sans Steve and Natasha, and Pepper cant help the huge grins that spread across their faces at the sight before them.

Natasha and Steve are cuddled close together in the large bed, her arms wrapped around his small waist and his face now pressed against her chest, a visible smile on his face. The sight is so sweet, so shocking to some- Clint- that they just stand there for a couple minutes watching them.

They all offer each other guilty glances before Pepper shoos them back into the living room and closes the bedroom door. Once she joins them, she stands at the front of the room a sheepish grin on her face. "I guess we owe each other apologies."

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Look who it is! Little Red and The Star Spangled Man with a Plan." Tony says when Natasha walks into the room with Steve perched on her hip, his small arms wrapped tightly around her neck. "Or should I say Star Spangled Toddler with a Plan."

"Doesn't fit." Clint comments taking a bite of his plate of eggs.

"How about baby?" Tony asks. He frowns when the archer shakes his head. Ignoring the two's comments, Natasha makes her way over to Bruce and Pepper, sitting right in between them Steve on her lap. Pepper tickles Steve's stomach bidding him good morning to which he replies, "Good mor-… morring Peppy!"

"Good morning Natasha. I see you up and about early." Bruce says shaking his head in disapproval at the redhead. "When you should be-"

"Don't say it." Natasha declares putting a finger up to shush him. Turning her head to glare at him, she says in a dangerous voice "Still haven't forgiven you for completely drugging me yesterday." Bruce shrugs, neither ashamed or scared of the look Natasha is giving him.

"It's was the only way to keep you in bed."

"Not for very long." Natasha mutters scooping up a plate of eggs, pancakes, and bacon. Steve leans his head on Natasha's chest pulling on the sleeve of her shirt to get her attention. Looking down, Natasha smiles warmly at him. "Yes, Мой принц" Brushing a couple of strands back from Steve's face, she watches his tiny hands points out towards the food in the middle of the time.

"Hungry." He says sticking a thumb in his mouth.

Gently slapping his hand away from his mouth, Natasha sets to putting together Steve's plate, laughing when Steve squeals in excitement as the plate is placed in front of him. The others watch the entire interact with amuse, smiles playing on all the boy's faces. This is the first time they've ever seen the soft side of Natasha.

Leaning over Tony stage whispers something in Thor's ear, "I guess we found Natasha's weak spot. Children."

Rolling her eyes, but making no comment Natasha continues to feed Steve his food, speaking to him in Russian and giving him praises when he finishes all his food.

After eating her own breakfast, Natasha tosses Steve up in the air catching him on his way back down and places him on her hip- the child giggling controllably. "Come on, Мой принц, I have something for you. Got just for you in England." Steve claps his hands together excitedly, a huge smile on his tiny face.

"Did you get something for me?" Clint and Tony asks looking expectantly up at the redhead women. Natasha pretends to mull over the question for a second before shaking her head, laughing and walking out of the room with Steve still attached to her hip. The two boys frown while Bruce shakes his head,

"You both had to have seen that coming."

It's a while before both boy shrug in agreement, continuing to eat their breakfast than to join Natasha and Steve in whatever they were doing.


	8. Chapter 8

Today was an unusual day for baby Steve. He loved his time spent with the Avengers because everytime he was with one of them it was all fun and games. Smiles and laughter. Everything was relaxing and full of fun and games. Once in a while, one of them would have to go do SHIELD related stuff, but not all of them that way there was always a reliable person looking after Steve. His days with the Avengers were nothing, but consistent and that's what he loved about them.

Every morning he woke up alone in his large bed. He'd climb off in his footie pajamas that someone had put on him in the middle of the night and before he can make it to the door, Natasha would walk in with a fresh diaper, and the clothes he were to wear that day. After getting him ready, she'd bring him into the kitchen for breakfast which Clint, Bruce, or Tony would have ready for him when he sat at the table. After breakfast, Tony and Bruce would have an hour of experimenting with/ on to find a cure to bring him back, but no longer. Than it was play time with Clint, Thor, Pepper or Natasha before lunch time. After lunch was Steve's 2 hour nap and then Bruce's time to play with Steve while Natasha works on paperwork for SHIELD. Tony would get an hour with Steve, then dinner and after his bath. Natasha would watch a movie with Steve, a child movie of course, before putting him to bed. Steve would always try to crawl himself into Natasha's or Bruce's bed, especially on bad nights, but sometimes they wouldn't let him. On some occasion, Steve could sleep with them, but not very much.

But today was different. The morning was the same and he was grateful for that, but after his time in the lab and during his play time with Natasha and whoever came to join them that's when everything went downhill. Today… it all changed. All the happiness was sucked out of the day because of one phone call…

"Ony! C'lint!" Steve screams before jumping up from his spot, abandoning the crayons he was drawing with and Natasha whom lap he was previously sitting on. Dropping the things in his hands, Steve makes a dash for Clint, the closest person near him, his wobbly legs making it difficult for him to keep his balance.

"Hi kiddo!" Clint greets as he catches the child that throws himself at him, one arm snacking around Steve's waist and the other grabbing under his left armpit. Wrapping his tiny arms around the archer, Steve sits himself on Clint's hip, the child practically buzzing with excitement. He looks like he has something to say, but is waiting for Clint and Tony to say ask. "Whatcha doing?"

"'Tasha play wif me!" Steve says pointing at the redhead sitting on the floor next to his toys and coloring books. "I color wif those." Steve says pointing at the crayons the ground. "An' I made 'Tasha a pict'cher!"

"What did you draw her?" Tony asks.

"She say that she likeded spiders, so I draw herd a spider!"

"Can we see?"

"Yeah!" Jumping down from Clint's arms, Steve toddles over plopping back down into her lap before grabbing a paper she hands him. He holds it up for the other two to see a large proud smile on his face.

Well, Steve was right it was a spider. If you squinted your eyes and turned your head slightly to the side. But hey, he's a toddler, you cant expect a masterpiece. His work is better than two year old Tony and Clint have ever seen. Come to think of it, it's the only children drawing they've ever seen and it's surprisingly good for someone Steve's age.

"Did you draw me a picture too?" Clint asks playfully looking down at Steve with a smile.

"Yeah! An' Ony, Booce and T'or." Steve says picking up a pile of stacked papers. Handing them to Natasha, Steve pulls out two handing them to Clint and Tony. "I made you a Hawki and I draw Ony's buo thing." Steve says pointing at Tony's arc reactor.

"Wow, thanks Steve. I love Hawks." Clint says both boys grabbing their respected papers from the boy.

"Thanks Steve-o." Tony sends a smirk in Natasha's way, the redhead rolling her eyes.

"What Stark?"

"This is an adorable sight." Tony comments gesturing to Steve sitting in her lap. "Is little Red having fun playing tea parties and dolls with her miniaturized leader?" Tony teases making the movement of drinking tea from a tiny tea cup.

The death glare Natasha sends his way makes Tony take a detour to the kitchen a terrified look on his face. Steve stares on in confusion in the direction Tony left. "Ony mad at me?" Steve asks innocently pointing at himself.

"No Steve, Tony's just being stupid. You didn't do anything wrong." Clint assures.

"Ony being st'pid?"

"Yes." Clint says looking down at Steve, trying to ignore the heated glare he knows Natasha is sending his way. Natasha stands from her spot, placing Steve on her hip, shaking her head.

"Don't say that word Steve. It's a no no word."

Steve eyes widen instantly, a hand coming to his mouth. His hands muffles his speech, "I say no no word?" He asks in disbelief. Natasha nods her head and Steve looks up at her with teary blue eyes. "I sowry"

Brushing his hair back from his face, Natasha caresses his face smiling down at him. "I'm not mad at you Steve, just make sure you don't say it again."

"I won't. I pomise." Steve decades even resulting to crossing his heart with his fingers. Natasha giggles and presses a kiss upon Steve's forehead. That's when she notices him shift uncomfortably in her arms, his face turning into a grimace.

"What's wrong sweetie?"

Steve cheeks turn a bright shade of pink and he buried his face in Natasha's shoulder. Clutching the collar of her shirt, Steve mutters into her shoulder softly and shyly. "Wet." He says shifting even more, his soaked diaper making him uncomfortable.

Natasha instantly breaks out into a smile. "Steve you don't have to be embarrassed. Come on let's get you cleaned up." Turning to Clint, Natasha asks him to make a bottle for Steve before walking past him and into the hallway.

When Natasha's footsteps can't be heard anyone, Tony pokes his head out the kitchen doorway. "She gone?"

"Your safe." Clint assures walking into the kitchen, past him. Following him inside, Tony leans casually against the counter, a couple centimeters away from Clint, a smirk on his face as he peacefully sips his coffee. He continues to stare at Clint while the archer gathers a bottle, and the milk. Clint doesn't notice at first as he prepares the bottle, but just as he's pouring the milk into the plastic bottle does he look up from his task. Any other normal person would jump in surprise when realizing someone was staring at them, especially when noticing his code that were. But not Clint. He keeps his face blank and body language neutral as if he was expecting to find Tony Stark starting at him. As if it were a natural occurrence in the Tower. Raising an eyebrow, Clint asks, "what?" starting to get annoyed at being watched. He was expecting a snarky out arrogant comment to folks his question, but what he doesn't expect is,

"Nothing." to come out of the billionaire mouth. It's so unnatural for Tony to just hold back from what he was gonna say. Normally whatever's in his mind just comes out naturally because he was no filter to tell him when and when not to say things. Especially at times when he needs to. At the archer question gaze, Tony shrugs pushing away from the counter and heading to the coffee maker to refill his cup.

Clint would've continued to press on him until he got an answer as to why Tony was staring at him, but just as he opens his mouth Bruce walks in currently wiping his glasses on the hem of his lab coat with Thor following closely behind roaring a loud "Good morning my SHIELD brothers!" while Bruce just nods at them as a form of greeting. There's a chorus of "Good morning Thor." Before Thor nods his head happily and makes his way to the cabinet pulling out a box of poptarts.

Taking a seat at the table, Bruce and reaches out and grabs the newspaper right in front of him. "Where's Natasha and Steve?" he asks straightening out the paper.

"Changing his diaper." Clint answers turning around exposing the bottle he'd finish making. Clint opens his mouth to press on what Tony was just saying, but is yet again cut off by JARVIS this time,

"Sir, Director Fury is on line 1."

Tony lets out an exaggerated sigh (to which Clint rolls his eyes) and turns away from his precious coffee for a moment. "Put him on."

A second passes before Fury's voice barks through the speakers, "Stark, where are the others?"

"Where're all here eye patch, except Natasha and Steve." Tony says grabbing his cup of coffee.

"I need you all at headquarters. Everyone, including Miss. Potts." Fury demands as if he hadn't heard Tony jab at his eyes. Everyone cant help, but notice the anxiety hidden in his neutral, demanding voice.

"Why?" Bruce inquires putting the newspaper down.

"I'll tell you when you get here, but this is about Rogers."

"What about Steve?" Bruce questions.

"I'll explain when you get here. Bring Steve. I'll get someone to watch him. Just get your asses down here. It's urgent."

"Fury what's going on?" Clint demands, suddenly very protective of his tiny teammate, the others sharing his look of concern.

"Rogers is in danger."

… "Give us an hour."

"You have 30 minutes." Than the line is disconnected.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"All done." Natasha comments putting Steve's pants back on. Grabbing him under his armpits, she lifts him up and places him on her hip. "Better?"

"Uh- huh." Steve says smiling, his head on her shoulder. Soon after he lets out a big yawn which reminds Natasha of his much needed nap. Without it, he's very fussy, Thor and Clint learned the hard way.

"Come on big boy, it's nap time."

"No nap. I not tired." Steve says another yawn immediately coming forth after his statement.

Natasha rolls her eyes cradling Steve in her arms. "Sure you're not tired." Laying down in his bed with him, Natasha swaddles him with blankets and shushes him to go to sleep.

It doesn't take long for him to knock out and for a few minutes Natasha just stares down at him, memorizing every feature of his tiny face. Trying to put together what Steve lost, gained and kept. It's very obvious to Natasha or anyone who'd seen the super soldier right before the incident to see what features has changed and what has not. They stick out like a sore thumb and others are just plainly obvious.

His blue eyes darkened slightly, his blonde hair stayed the same, his cheeky bones became less dominate due to his now returned baby fat and his plump lips are a soft shade of reddish pink. He doesn't look like a child starved like most growing up in the time he did, the great desperation, but he is much too skinny for Natasha's taste. She wonders idly if baby Steve still has the serum in his body like adult Steve. If the serum was still running through his blood like the serum in her blood. Or if it had vanished like his adult body. If it had vanished, her and the others would definitely have a much harder time caring for Steve with the sicknesses that would come with the small body. But there has been no sign of asthma, Scarlett fever, heart trouble, ect… Steve is a just a regular, healthy 2 year old child. Granted he is way skinner than the others, but otherwise healthy and happy. Bruce even gave him a checkup and declared him perfectly healthy.

Natasha imagines him as he grows older back then. Watching him sprout from this rambunctious toddler to this determined young wanna-be soldier, just like his father. As she watched him grow in her head, it seemed the older he got, the more skinny and lean his body became and also the smaller. It seems baby Steve is more healthy than pre-serum adult Steve. 'Did he get some of his sicknesses growing up? It doesn't look like he was born with it, or has the serum stayed when he de-aged?' Natasha wonders to herself, pressing Steve closer to her side discreetly checking for anything wrong. He stirs for a minute, but doesn't awaken, his head buried in Natasha's side. Natasha has to remind herself multiples times that Bruce declared him in perfect shape so there was no need to fuss and worry about him. Still she cant help, but worry.

Natasha always has to pry herself away from the napping toddler when he's asleep, but sometimes she just doesn't have the will to do it. Just like today and it was also the fact that when she looks up at the doorway she's meet with the worried faces of her teammates and the CEO of Stark Industries.

Instantly her body tenses, prepared to attack if necessary and also to protect the child sleeping beside her. Sitting up, mindful of Steve, Natasha looks at them expectantly waiting.

"We need to go in." Clint speaks first watching his partner carefully.

Her expression stays neutral, but she nods and leans down to scoop Steve effortlessly into her arms. "Why?" She asks securing her hold on the toddler. She doesn't get an answer right away which prompts her to look in their direction, an eyebrow raised.

Sighing softly, Bruce walks into the room to stand a few inches in front of Natasha and Steve. "Natasha…" he starts, "Fury called us in. It's urgent and we need to go to headquarters."

"What's this about?" She presses standing from her spot.

Biting his bottom lip, Bruce hesitant before sighing defeatedly knowing that Natasha was going to find out anyway. And if she didn't find out from them, they'd pay the price. "Steve's in danger."


	9. Chapter 9

Her face is blank, her body posture still, but even those cannot hide the fear she feels. The others can see it in her eyes and the way her arm tightened around Steve instantly. The child squirms slightly, but ends up just resting his head on her chest, a small smile on his sleeping face.

"Danger?" She wants to ask, but can't find the voice or will to do so. 'I don't think so. I knew it was too good to be true. Someone always has to interfere before we're able to turn Steve back. He can't just have a normal, peaceful time as a child before we have to turn him back. But, hey, we're the Avengers-him included- and normal had never been a part of the job description.' She bitterly thinks, reminding herself to try and keep her face clear of the mixed emotions from her teammates. She could accidentally let them know but she's try with all her might to keep themin the dark.

So many emotions pass through her mind in only a few seconds that it's almost overwhelming. She's a spy; she's not use to feeling these things and it unsettling. Normally, things like this would make her eager to leave, to complete the mission and come back home. To have someone as a punching bag and a bullet target before coming home and waiting for another mission to come up. Only... this is different. This is personal. For all of them, not just her.

Hearing that Steve, the most vulnerable person on the team, is in danger strikes something in her. It is like all the happiness in her is sucked out, only to be replaced with rage and a fierce need to protect the small child. The knowledge that someone is after Steve is all it takes for her motherly instinct to come out. The motherly instinct, which she thought she never possessed, took over and she can't help but feel scared for her "baby". The same baby that lays sleeping in her arms and Natasha hopes it stays this way for a while. She wouldn't be able to look into Steve's eyes with a fake smile knowing this sort of information. She would've been able to before. Only, that was before she grew so attached- something she didn't mean to intentionally do.

She stays silent for a while, the others watching and waiting for some kind of reaction from her, but she gives them nothing to read. Her body tenses slightly, but not enough to gather anyone's, except Clint's, attention. Her reaction shocks them slightly. They were expecting cold, dark, red fury from her, and Russian threats and curses. But they got nothing.

When Natasha speaks, she's careful about keeping her voice steady and as calm as she can. Her voice is leveled and dark, her face matching the tone of her voice, but that's the only evidence of the anger the team can see. "How?" She asks, more like demands, the doctor fidgeting in front of her. Many emotions flicker across her face, but mostly fury. Red, dark fury.

It makes Bruce shudder visibly and he honestly debates on telling her or not. Seeming extremely uncomfortable standing in front of the red head, he takes two steps back in case she makes a sudden swing at him before speaking. "We don't know, Fury called us in. He wouldn't tell us over the phone."

Automatically assuming that Pepper is staying to watch Steve, Natasha walks over to the door, stopping right in front of the other woman. She's about to hand him to her when Clint stops her,

"Pepper's coming. Director's orders."

"Who's going to watch Steve?" Natasha snaps at him, eyebrows raised, clearly warning him to keep his mouth shut. Clint doesn't seem to notice the way she's looking at him, but the others do and they back away in fear, but he stays where he is. He shrugs nonchalantly,

"Fury said he'd find someone to watch him."

"No." Natasha says instantly, coldly, making Clint jump. "Steve doesn't do well with new people. He gets scared. You guys know that."

"We do, but he'll have to suck it up," Clint replies. "Fury sounded anxious on the phone and you and I both know that that's not a good sign. Steve is in a vulnerable position right now and if he's in danger we need to protect him at all costs. And to keep him protected we need to know what's going on, so someone new will need to watch him. It's for his own good, Nat."

Natasha frowns, her shoulders sagging in defeat, "I hate it when you're right." She mutters, hitting her shoulder against his as she passes him.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

Multiple footsteps, some heavy and light, are heard walking through the vacant halls of SHIELD headquarters. One particular was pair faster, and quieter than the others. The working agents, as soon as they hear the footsteps, rush out of the way of the oncoming Avengers and Pepper, the expressions on their faces clearly stating they don't want to be bothered; especially the redhead assassin holding the still sleeping toddler. The hallways are cleared minutes before the Avengers come barreling into it.

Minutes upon their arrival, the footsteps are a few feet away from the debriefing room, but still the sound is enough to alert the director of SHIELD that they are here. Fury raises his head high and waits patiently for the chaos that's about to come bursting through the debriefing room's doors. Pressing a button to the side of him, Fury waits until a familiar voice speaks through the speaker.

"Hill."

"They're here."

"I'll be there in a minute."

"Bring Coulson." And she hangs up just as the door open and 6 bodies fill into the large room. It surprised Fury had many seconds they stayed silent before exploding into questions and concerns. Fury half expected Natasha, whom still holding Steve tightly to her chest, to be the first one to speak, but wasn't completely surprised when Tony did first.

"What the hell is going on, Fury?" He demands, his voice silencing everyone else as he starts to pace.

Normally when the team is called in on a mission, Steve is the one standing and pacing already forming a plan in his head as Fury speaks. But currently their leader is in their only female teammate's arms, sleeping peacefully and sucking on his thumb. So now all the pressure Steve carries on his shoulders has transferred to Tony's.

"Sit." Fury nods at the six chairs surrounding the table, ignoring Tony's question completely.

Clint, Bruce, and Natasha take a seat around the table while Thor stays standing- preferring to stand rather than sit- and Tony just repeats his question again.

Fury doesn't get time to answer as the door open and Maria Hill and Phil Coulson walk into the room. Tony sighs irritated, "Is anyone else coming?"

"No." Fury replies calmly turning to Natasha. "Hand Steve over." He says nodding to the two agents in the room. Coulson and Hill look over at him with wide, pleading eyes. Fury just merely ignores them and with a smug smile says, "You choose who, I don't care. The other will serve as your handler on this."

Looking between the two agents, Natasha does her examination quickly and quietly before turning to Maria and carefully handing the child to her. Maria looks like she'd rather be facing a hundred armed men with only a knife and a handgun than watch a baby.

Turning to Coulson, Natasha shrugs, "You're my handler, so I'm used to going in under your direction." She explains to the shocked faces that stare at her while Maria sends Coulson a heated glare behind Natasha's back. He gives her a huge smug grin, going to stand beside Fury.

"Hill, you're dismissed." Holding Steve out at arm length, she carries the still sleeping child out of the room. Natasha wants to slap her for the way she's holding Steve. 'He's a baby! Not a bomb!' She screams in her mind. She's so lost in her thoughts she doesn't hear Fury calling her. "Agent Romanoff... Agent Romanoff... Romanoff!" Fury snaps, trying to get the zoned out Agent's attention. Sighing impatiently, Fury grips Natasha's shoulder, shaking her. "Natasha!" Fury barks, snapping a finger in her face. "Romanoff!"

"Sorry, sir." Natasha says instantly, trying to hide the small blush that settles on her cheek, standing up straight and going to take a seat, head down.

"Fury, tell us what's going on." Clint demands, irritation coloring his voice.

Eyeing the six people in the room, Fury sighs before pulling out a remote control. Pointing it to the back of the room where a large screen that takes up the entire wall. The TV rises until it rests right behind the director. "A week ago, SHIELD got a threat alert from an unknown source. We didn't know what it was, we assumed it was just another hot head trying to take over SHIELD again. Nothing we haven't handled before, so there was nothing to worry about. Seeing that this was a mild, mediocre mission we sent a few agents out on the job, instead of you because you had your own problems to deal with." Fury says indicating to the door that Maria and Steve had left through. "It was a few of our top agents with Hill and Coulson included." Fury says, nodding towards the man standing next to him. "We were half right because it was nothing too big, just some organization making weapons outside out of the country. That was until we find a secret underground tunnel right below their hiding spot. The whole thing was a scam, and the weapon planning organization was a cover up for what was going on below them. Luckily, we were able to get back up there in time. What we were hoping to gather, while on this mission, was information. Anything that could tell us what their main plan was so we can devise one of our own with your help as well. But it seems we got more than what we bargained for when we found their underground tunnel." Fury pulls up a copy of Steve's file, which contains all of his information. The others stare at it in confusion thinking that if they stare at it long enough an answer would come up as to why they were looking at it. It all looked the same from when they first saw it.

Before the Avengers were put together, they each were given copies of the other members. Due to Tony laziness and hatred of paperwork, he left Pepper to tell him everything about his team and she had spent a remarkable amount of time on Steve's because she was fascination with his history. So she'd become accustomed to Steve's file to know from anywhere that it was his.

After a while at just staring at the screen Tony became impatient. Sighing loudly, he sat down in a chair and leaned back rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hands. "This is Steve's file." Tony points out. "Why are we looking at it?"

"Because, Stark, this file isn't ours. It's the one we were able to grab before retreating along with..." Fury pulls up another picture alongside Steve's file. The picture, a blue print to be exact, showed the directions, instructions and equations of a simulator. The same simulator Steve was in during the Project Rebirth, before he became Captain America and a super soldier.

Fury nods at Coulson to continue and Coulson steps up to the front of the room, right in front of the blue print. "This," he states nodding to theimage, "machine from our research, once built, will be able to extract the blood of one person and be duplicated into many others. As if they were creating an army."

There's silence until a collective gasp fills the room. "You don't think..." Pepper starts, but trails off when Coulson nods.

"They're planning on capturing Rogers and draining him of his blood to create an army of super soldiers to take down SHIELD and take over the government. Since they were getting no way near what Dr. Erskine was when he created the serum injected into Steve. And to make the process faster-"

"They built that machine to extract the blood from Steve, figuring that if they couldn't remake it, they could just take it from the original possessor." Bruce finishes for him.

"Exactly." Coulson says. "They're after Steve."

"But how are they going to do that if Steve's a baby?" Pepper asks, anxiety clouding her face. "I don't think he carries the serum anyone."

"Of course he does." Fury says. "Rogers was an extremely sick child and nearly grew up in or around a hospital. His sicknesses started when he was born. That happy toddler that runs around your tower, playing arts and crafts with you is a child Rogers would've been if he wasn't such a sick person. They're after him and will drain him of his blood if they got his hands on him, especially now. He's in a vulnerable position and that's where you come in." Fury says pointing at Pepper. "We'll need you to-"

"Of course I will watch him and keep a close eye on him. We have the best baby monitor in the world already working around the clock." Pepper says, referring to JARVIS.

"You won't need to watch him for a long period of time because we'll need your help with controlling the media. We don't need stories going around about the leader of the Avengers going AWOL. Those need to be handled immediately. All the Avengers won't be assigned on a mission together. We'll leave at least one behind to watch Steve while you do your part. Do you think you'll be able to do that?"

"I'll take care of it." Pepper assures the obviously anxious director.

Everyone was so caught up in the conversation between the CEO and Fury that no one noticed Clint who seemed to be having a war in his head. His face scrunched up in confusion as if trying to figure out a difficult math problem, but having no luck.

That's why everyone just when he suddenly speaks, his voice loud. "That's impossible." Clint says, eyes wide in disbelief, his mind still whirling around the fact that someone had gotten their hands on Steve's file and duplicated it.

"What is it?" Thor asks, watching Clint's face.

"Someone couldn't have just walked on in and taken a file without being noticed. Those files are under heavy guard and security. The only ones that have access to them are Fury, us, Hill and Coulson."

"There's a breach in our system," Fury explains as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't know who, but-"

"Could Hill have done it?" Natasha abruptly says already pinning the blame on Maria. The disbelieving stares she receives for her comment makes her shrug and roll her eyes. "Come on, Hill hates all of us. Steve even more."

"Agent Hill does not hate you. She just keeps her distance." Coulson defends her.

"No, she doesn't like anyone of us. She tolerates Pepper, hates Barton and me, thinks Thor and Steve are freaks of nature because one is from another planet and the other lived in ice for 70 years. And lastly, she feels threatened and scared of Bruce-but no one can really blame her for that, I guess. No offense, Bruce." Natasha adds as an afterthought. Bruce just waves off her apology with a shrug.

"Actually..." Tony starts. "Little Red is right, it actually wouldn't shock me if it was her." Tony says. "I should've thought of that first."

"Me, too." Clint adds and he's about to add his own thoughts when Fury slams a fist on the table making Thor, Bruce and Tony jump.

"Enough, I will not allow you all to speak disrespectfully of Agent Hill. I trust her, Agent Coulson trusts her and I hope you will trust us when we say it was not her. Agent Hill is a lot of things, but one thing she isn't is disloyal."

"Well if it wasn't her, than who was it?"

"We don't know, but we'll find out." Coulson said. "And rest assured that the consequences will be dire."

"Anything else?" Thor asks.

"No, that's all we have for now. We're sending others back out in a couple of days to gather more information. I'm assuming you'll want to be a part of this mission." Fury says, directing the assumption towards the Avengers, purposely excluding Pepper, who's grateful of that.

3 out of the 5 people in the room shout out a loud yes while the other two hesitate. Large grins are plastered on Tony's, Clint's and Thor's faces while Bruce looks hesitant. "I don't think you'll need the other guy…" Bruce says trailing off. He sighs in relief when Fury nods his head,

"That won't be necessary; we'll need you more in the research department."

"Aw come on, Brucie, Little Red, join the fun." Tony says to the redhead who also looks hesitant. Of course she wants to go help, but she couldn't just leave Steve unprotected. 'He wouldn't be unprotected thought. He'll have JARVIS who'll do anything to keep Steve safe because the AI really likes Steve and he'll have SHIELD and Pepper. But still… I can't leave him. He broke down when I last left him, I can't do that again.I'll fight when the real hell breaks loose.' Natasha vows.

The redhead shakes her head standing up, "I'm staying with Steve. You guys go ahead, but when the real fight begins call me, and I'll suit up along with the rest of you." She says, already walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" Clint asks.

"Out." Natasha replies before slamming the debriefing room's doors shut.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"'Tasha." Steve calls sitting up in the cot he had awoken in. Rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes, Steve looks around the room for the familiar red head.

Fear instantly shoots through him when he realizes he's alone. He doesn't like being alone, being alone in the dark reminds him of the cold. He doesn't know where the coldness comes from, but he doesn't like it. He likes it when he's warm in Natasha's or Bruce's arms. "'Tasha." Steve calls out again, his voice a little wobbly due to the oncoming tears. Sliding off the cot, Steve toddles to the door at the other end of the room. He reaches up to grab the doorknob and pulls it open when a voice stops him.

"Where are you going?"

Steve freezes, his body starting to shake and fear running up through his entire body. 'Dat not 'Tasha's or Booce's voice.' He instantly registers when the voice comes from the darkness. Slowly turning around, Steve searches for something in the darkness, but finds nothing. He's about to open the door again when someone steps out of the shadows. Steve stares up and finds an unfamiliar women staring down at him, arms crossed across her chest and an eyebrow raised. His next movement is immediate.

He drops to the floor and curls into a small ball, too scared to move. His thumb immediately goes into his mouth and he crawls away from the women starting to come towards him. Tears run down his face and at the sight of the tears Maria's eyes bug open.

"Um…" she says uncertainly. "Don't cry? It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." Little did she know that her tone of voice scares him even more because of the irritation and uncertainty laced in it. Steve easily notices the tone and starts silently crying moving even further away from Maria. "Hey, kid, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Steve stays silent until Maria reaches down to pat his shoulder in what she thinks is a comforting manner. But as soon as Steve sees her hand coming down towards him, he screams loudly and stands on his wobbly legs before running across the room, out of Maria's reach.

It was at that moment the door opened eliminating the dark room with light from the hallway. "What the…" The dark figure says, but Steve's face lights up instantly when his eyes catch onto the redhead.

"'Tasha!" Steve screams, his voice cracking slightly. The lights turn on and Natasha looks over at the toddler standing in the corner of the room, eyes red and puffy and tears still streaming down his face. Then she looks over at the confused agent standing a few feet in front of her. "'Tasha." Steve says getting her attention back to him. He reaches his arms out to her wanting to be picked up. Crossing the room in four long strides, Natasha scoops Steve into her arms and presses him against her chest. "Ssh… it's okay. I'm here. I'm here." She whispers to the child turning around to face Maria. Covering Steve's ears she glares at her, "What did you do?"

"Nothing. He woke up and saw me than started crying. I didn't know what to do." She replied honestly and Natasha almost felt bad for her because she looked so lost. "I went to pat him on the back and he screamed and ran. Then you came in."

Sighing, Natasha shakes her head, "Why was the light off?"

"He was sleeping. I thought that's what you do when a child is sleeping."

"Well, Steve is scared of the dark. It reminds him of being the ice, especially when he's alone in the dark. Be more mindful, Agent Hill." Natasha says walking to the door, Steve clinging tightly to her body, head on her shoulder. Before Maria could say anything else, Natasha flicks the light off and slams the door shut, leaving Maria standing there in the dark room alone.


	10. Chapter 10

Natasha expects to find no one standing by the door waiting for her and Steve, the others already having made their way back to the Tower to discuss different strategies. But she's mildly surprised when she turns the corner towards SHIELD's entrance/exit and finds Bruce casually leaning against the side of the door, waiting patiently. He's looking down at the phone in his hands, his eyebrow creased in concentration. His expression now is very different than his usual mild, calm, shy personality and this takes Natasha back a bit. Of course it's expected from him after finding out what's happening to their small teammate. Someone whom, not only Natasha has grown attached to, but Bruce as well.

"The others left?" Natasha asks, already knowing the answer. Looking up at the sound of her voice, he offers her a smile, putting his phone into his pocket.

"Yeah. Tony and Clint were the first to leave and get security ready at the Tower. Thor went to go get Jane."

"Jane?"

"Dr. Foster. She's another astrophysicist that's going to help assist us during this. She will be in the research lab with me and, if needed, will watch Steve when there's no one else there to watch him. Fury doesn't want anyone near him except Dr. Foster, Pepper, Coulson, Maria, himself and the five of us." Bruce says indicating to the rest of the team. "Oh, and Thor warned us that Jane was most likely going to bring a friend. Darcy Lewis. She's Jane's assistant and not as smart as Dr. Foster, but still a reliable resource." Natasha makes a face at the idea of the newcomer accompanying Thor and Jane to New York. Steve will have to meet not only one new person, but two. It makes Natasha uncomfortable thinking that she'll have to leave Steve in their care once the team fight begins. She didn't even know them, which adds to her anxiety. Bruce seems to sense her discomfort and is stuck to reassure her. "We can trust them. Thor and Fury assured us. And Tony did a background check on both girls himself. They're clean and Steve will be safe with them."

Natasha takes this into consideration. 'Stark did a background check? And Thor and Fury have their approval. Okay, maybe I can trust them, but I'll have enough time to do my own evaluation before I have to go. I'm not leaving Steve will strangers that he and I don't know.' Natasha vows to herself, giving Bruce a quick nod of acceptance.

Bruce smiles and looks down at the quiet child in the redhead's arms, his eyes softening and genuine. "Hey, Steve, are you ready to go home?" Bruce asks in a tone that he only reserves for little Steve. Looking up at the sound of his name, Steve exposes the tears that are still running down his cheek from earlier.

He perks up at the sight of Bruce and a small smile forms across his face. "Booce." Steve winces peeling himself away from Natasha and reaching out to grasp tightly into Bruce's shoulder, prompting the doctor to grab him. Natasha passes over Steve when Bruce opens his arms with an eyebrow raised in her direction. Having the child in arms, Bruce holds him tightly to his chest and rocks him slightly, shushing him softly.

"Hey, buddy, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Bruce asks looking over at Natasha. She mouths back, 'He was scared.' and Bruce nods knowingly holding Steve tighter. It takes a while, but after a lot of encouragement from both Natasha and Bruce, Steve pulls his head out of Bruce's shoulder and looks up at them, his eyes glassy and moist from his tears. Sniffing, Steve rubs his eyes to get rid of the tears, but just ends up using Bruce's shirt to which Natasha can't help but laugh at because of the doctor's reaction. "You want to go home?" Bruce asks, seeing that he wasn't getting an answer anyone soon. Steve answers by nodding his little head and resting it on Bruce's shoulder.

Looking over at Natasha, she nods her head over to the doors before leading the way, Bruce following closely behind.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Is the target secure?"

"I've got visual right now." Peeks out of the bushes, and watches as Natasha, Bruce and Steve climb into the back of one of Tony's car. "Do I intercept?"

"No, wait. It's not ready for him and he's heavily guarded at the moment. Lay low and wait for my word." 

"Yes sir. But what happens if they're able to turn Rogers back into an adult? He's an extreme threat to us and an asset to SHIELD. It will interfere with what we've gained so far."

"I'm fairly certain that with what's going on around them that Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark will be out of the lab for quite some time. With what we've laid out for them, they'll be too busy trying to find us that turning Rogers back is the least of their problems."

"And Agent Romanoff and Dr. Banner?"

"Agent Romanoff and Dr. Banner are now good friends of ours. Their fierce attachment to the child is most likely going to possess them to keep their leader young and out of arms reach."

Watching as the car drives away from SHIELD headquarters. "Targets in pursuit. What do I do?"

"Follow them and keep me updated, I want to know every single little fact I can about Rogers and learn their schedules. All of their schedules. When it's time to put the plan into action, I want all form of security for the child gone. You get the computer system out of the way and we'll take care of their team of superheroes."

"Yes, sir."

"And make sure you're not caught. I want a report before the day is over."

"Yes, sir."

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

Steve, grasping one of Natasha's and Bruce's hand, walks out of the elevator and tugs on their arms, leading them to the common room, a large proud grin on his face. "Come! Come!" He urges them his small, wobbly legs shaking slightly from underneath him.

"We're coming, we're coming." Bruce assures, letting Steve lead the way, the doctor assumed at the enthusiasm the toddler is expressing. It takes Steve a minute to remember which way is the common room, shooing Natasha and Bruce away when they try to help him, but smiles and rushes into Clint's arms after turning the correct corner.

"C'int!" Steve exclaims, jumping into the archer's lap, startling him and efficiently interrupting his conversation with Tony, whom sat beside him, and Pepper, who sat across from the boys.

"Hey, kiddo, when did you get back?"

"Now." Steve says, pointing to Bruce and Natasha who was barely entering the room. Jumping off Clint's lap, Steve grabs his wrist and tugs on his arm trying to pull him off the couch. "Play wif me?" He asks, nodding towards his toys that are currently scattered across the common room floor.

"Actually, Steve, I can't play right now. I got to talk to Tony, Thor, Natasha and Bruce." Clint tells him and regrets it instantly when the child pouts, his bottom lip jutting out and arms crossing across his chest.

"But I wanna play wif you." Steve winces, his bottom lip jutting out even more.

Seeing the torn expression on the archer's face, Pepper intervenes before Clint can give in, "Hey Steve, why don't you and I go to the park? Go play on the playground, just you and me than maybe, afterwards, we can get some ice cream. How does that sound?" Steve's face lights up at the mention of ice cream and runs away from Clint to go tug on Pepper's pant leg.

"Ice cream!" Steve squeals excitedly.

"Are you sure it's safe to go out? You heard what Fury-" Bruce starts, but Pepper waves him off.

"We'll be fine, if it makes you feel any better, we'll take Happy will be with us. Besides, Steve hasn't been out of this tower for weeks and going to SHIELD headquarters doesn't count as getting out. It's time he is meets kids his own age. Come on Steve, let's go get ice cream." Pepper says, standing from her spot.

"Aw, no fair." Tony pouts. "I want ice cream."

Steve giggles, sticking his tongue out at Tony playfully. "No! You gots to stay here. Peppy and I gets to go to da park. Come on Peppy, let's go." Steve urges, pulling on her arm.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. We'll be back soon." Pepper tells them, mostly directing it towards Natasha, who looks extremely anxious. Hesitating for a minute, Natasha gives an unconvincing nod and watches as Pepper grabs Steve's tiny hand in one of her own before heading back to the elevator.

She's stares after them until the elevator has closed, putting a barrier between Steve, Pepper and herself. She can't help the frown that crosses her face.

It stays silent for a while, an awkward silence filling over the room making not only Bruce, but Tony uncomfortable. Clint and Natasha seem just fine with the silence. Soon it becomes too much. After 15 minutes Tony could no longer handle the quiet and decided to speak.

"So..." Tony sighs, running a hand over his face. "What are we going to do about him?" Tony asks, jerking his towards the elevator.

"There's nothing we can do except wait." Natasha says, biting her bottom lip hard, almost hard enough to draw blood. Her eyes are filled with the worry, the others mirroring her expression. She begins to pace, not being able to stay in one spot long enough.

Many situations and options are thrown back and forth by the Avengers, but she and Bruce shoot them down immediately when they involve using Steve as bait.

"We aren't putting him in danger." Bruce states glaring daggers at the two sitting in front of him."Steve is too vulnerable and if simmering goes wrong, we could lose him. One little glitch and he'll be gone. That's too big of a risk." Natasha nods along, her mind whirling with options.

"What other options do you have?" Tony asks, exasperated.

"We could turn him back." Clint suggests, an eyebrow raised in hope. But it's knocked off his face by the slight shake of the head Bruce gives.

"We would if we had the antidote. We're not even remotely close to bringing Steve back and with all this happening right now, we won't have the time."

Natasha can't help, but let a smile cross her features at Bruce's words. And everyone can register the relief in Bruce's voice although they can tell the doctor is trying to repress his smile.

"What else can do?" Clint frowns, his frustration starting to show.

"What about Pepper Darcy and Jane?" Tony suggests.

"What about them?"

"We could ship Steve off somewhere with them. Some place where they won't expect him to be."

"No." Natasha instantly says. "We aren't leaving Steve with two strangers. If he couldn't handle one stranger, Maria, what makes you think he'll handle two strangers? And Pepper has to stay here. She can't just drop everything and leave because she had a job to fulfill for this mission, if that's what your want to call it."

"Darcy and Jane won't be strangers for long." Tony points out. "They'll be living here during and maybe after, depends on if they'll accept. Steve will adapt to them and from what Thor has said about them, Steve will really like this Darcy chick."

"I'll sleep better if he stays here with me. With us. That way if something happens we'll be able to protect him." Natasha insists and the tone of her voice clearly means that the topic is not debatable.

"We could do a two person, round-the-clock guard on Steve. Every four hours or however long we choose, we switch off. That way there is always someone there to watch Steve." Bruce says.

"We don't need to do that. We have JARVIS. Unlike the rest of the quarters in the Tower, only this room has constant surveillance when a life sign is detected. You have access to the recordings and are able to get the surveillance anytime you want. All you have to do is ask JARVIS. If you have been to Steve's bedroom during the past week, you'll have noticed the palm sensor on the door. It's set right now to only let the five of us in the room in case of an emergency. Only you can modify that list." Tony says, looking at Natasha. Natasha can't help but feel relieved that Tony gave her authority to control Steve's safety measures. It makes her feel a lot better than she did minutes before.

"Why her?" Clint asks.

"Because… I don't know. I have no valid reason as to why I gave it to her, except that I know she'll do anything she can to keep Steve safe. And she'll be the only here, besides Bruce, Jane, Pepper and Darcy that will be able to care for him while we're away." He explains gesturing between him and the archer. "She's sort of like Steve's mother in a way. She takes care of him 24/ 7, always is with him and he trusts you a lot more than he does any of us… Besides Bruce."

"So, just to confirm, you didn't even have access or control?"

He shrugged. "I told JARVIS to lock me out."

"Would you be able to outwit JARVIS to get access to the system if you really wanted to?"

"Since I'm the one who created him, it's possible that I can, but there are security measures in place to draw such a challenge out for as long as possible. JARVIS will not only use the safety protocols be taken into effect immediately if an emergency were to arise, but also he will be scanning Steve's vitals at all times. If something starts to go wrong, he'll notify Bruce first before telling us and a medical team will be alerted immediately." Tony informs.

"What exactly are the protocols, Stark?" Natasha questions.

Instead of Tony answering, it's JARVIS. "If I feel or see that young Captain Rogers is in danger or at risk of getting harmed, I will lock down all entrances and exits to his room including windows and bulletproof everything in his room. The only way inside the room will be as, as sir as pointed out, the palm sensor. Unless you allow anyone in the room with you Miss. Romanoff, you and Dr. Banner will be the only ones that will be able to get Steve. No one else is allowed unless you allow them entrance: you or Dr. Banner. And if such an occasion were to arise that you'd need to get through the window in order to get Captain Rogers, the window pane near his crib can eject with a command from the suit or directly to me from any part of the Tower. It will also pop out of place if someone, say Mr. Odinson, projects a large electrical charge at the senor near, on or the around the joint in the window located near the far right corner. Although it will fit Thor perfectly, I must say that it's not wide enough for the Hulk. My apologies, Dr. Banner."

The scientist shrugs, "No need, I'd rather not have the other guy meet Steve. At least not in his state."

"So I don't really think the round the clock guard is necessary." Tony says, grinning.

"Well, even if this may be a bit overprotective, I'm going to sleep in Steve's room until this is done and over with." Natasha insists and she puts a finger up to silence the protest the others are about to throw her way. "I'm staying with him, no matter what any of you say. I'm not letting him to stay alone at a time like this."

Tony opens his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by the loud thunder roaring outside the Tower and the rain that accompanies the thunder.

Looking outside, Clint stands, the others soon following. "Something tells me Thor and company have just arrived." Without another word, the four of them walk outside the Tower balcony to meet up with their teammate and his guests.

Upon finding Thor standing in the middle of the balcony- two young brunettes attached to his hip, his arms around both of their waist- the others offer him small smiles. "Hello, my SHIELD brothers and sister!" Thor exclaims loudly, his voice overpowering the harsh rainfall around them. Tony frowns, his arms crossing across his chest as he glares at the happy, _DRY_, Asguardian and the two brunettes standing next to him. The only place of the Tower's balcony that hasn't been soaked with the water is the exact spot Thor, Darcy and Jane stand. They stand there dry while the other four Avengers get soaked from the downpour. It's clear that none of the others are happy about this, but before they can ask Thor to stop, he continues as if he doesn't notice their facial expressions. "I have returned from my visit to New Mexico. My friends, I would like to introduce you to two good friends of mine. This is Darcy Lewis." Thor says putting a large hand on the shorter brunette's shoulder. "And Jane Foster." Instead of placing his other hand on the second girl's shoulder, he wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. "Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, this my team 'The Avengers'"

"Hi," the taller of the two says shyly, looking very small under Thor's large arm.

Darcy isn't as shy as Jane in her greeting, seeming to take a liking to how Clint looks in the rain. "Hey." She says mostly to the archer, but directing it to everyone.

"Um... Hey." Clint says, distracted by the rain still hitting his body. "Thor buddy, do you mind?" Clint asks pointing to the rain.

"My apologies, my friends." Thor says and just as suddenly as the rain started, it stopped.

"Can we go inside?" Tony asks frowning, his body shivering from the chill. Without waiting for anyone to answer, Tony turns on his heels and rushes inside his footsteps leaving wet footprints on the tower floor. Thor chuckles and starts escorting the two girls beside him into the door leading to the common room. The last three left on the balcony glance at each other, frown at being left and follow Thor and his friends inside.

When walking inside Jane and Darcy can't help but notice the intense stare they're getting from the red headed Russian standing across from them. Jane can ignore it without a problem, it's Darcy that immediately starts getting annoyed under the piercing green eyes. She opens her mouth to say something, but Jane shakes her head urgently, scared of what will come out of her friend's mouth. Most likely something unpleasant. Darcy frowns and huffs in exasperation, turning her head to avoid Natasha's eyes. Walking out in curiosity, Darcy starts touching and poking at random stuff, an awed expression on her face. An expression that one would see on a child when they're been taken to a candy shop. No one can help the laugh at the escapes them, well except Natasha, at Darcy and she gives them a goofy grin winking at the archer in front of her.

"Nice place, dude," she comments to Tony. "But I was expecting more of a holographic look. Designs littering the walls, and robots walking around, you know. That kind of stuff."

"Well, then maybe a tour is in order." Tony says, about to walk into the kitchen when Bruce puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Steve." Bruce reminds him.

"Calm down, Brucie. I was getting there. Anyway, Darcy, Jane, welcome to Stark Tower. As Thor said earlier, we're the Avengers. I'm Tony Stark, like you didn't already know. This old man over here is our beloved teammate and doctor, Bruce Banner. Also known as the Hulk."

Darcy's eyes practically bug out of her head. She turns to look at the doctor, a smile on her face. "You're the Hulk! You're like my favorite Avenger, besides Captain America." Darcy praises coming up to stand in front of Bruce. "Although Jane prefers Thor, I know she likes you as well. Especially because how you came to be fascinates her."

"Darcy!" Jane scolds, a pink blush settling across her cheeks. Darcy rolls her eyes at the astrophysicist ignoring her and smiling at Bruce.

"Um… thanks." Bruce says, slightly uncomfortable and relaxes when Darcy walks away from him, listening as Tony introduces the others.

"Anyway, this is Clint Barton, Hawkeye, or as I like to call Legolas. And lastly, Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow." Tony says, introducing the last two of the Avengers, who nod their greeting. Natasha's eyes stay planted on the two girls in the room and smiles slightly when she sees that she's making them uncomfortable. Crossing her arms, she leans against the kitchen counter and Darcy can see the slight upturn of the corner of her lips.

Huffing in exasperation, Darcy looks around once before turning her attention to Tony. She's practically bounces on the balls of her feet, a large grin on her face as she adjust the glasses that adorn her face. "So…" she starts, clearly waiting for the last Avenger to be introduced. 'Where is he, anyway?' she can't help, but wonder to herself.

"So…" Tony asks, an eyebrow raised.

Putting her hands on her hips, Darcy raises her own eyebrows. "Where is he?"

"He who?" Clint interjects.

"Darcy, stop. Don't-" Jane starts, but Darcy cuts her off , smiling excitedly

"Captain America! I've been dying to meet him."

Darcy frowns at the silence that follows her question. She looks around at the many different faces around her. Jane looks equally puzzled as to why no one has answered the question and why the man in question hasn't made an appearance yet.

Looking over at the God of Thunder, Bruce gives him a questioning gaze. "You never told them?"

"It never occurred. Director Fury requested I bring them immediately, I assumed that he told them."

"Tell us what?" Jane prompts, hating others talking about her as if she wasn't in the room.

"Dr. Foster," Bruce addresses her. "What exactly did Fury tell you when he contacted you?"

"Nothing much. Just that SHIELD needed me for some research and that I was needed in New York in less than a day."

"Did you even ask what you were needed for?" Tony asks, shocked.

"I tried." Jane insists. "But he hung up before I could get a word in. I was really frustrated."

"Eye patch does have that affected on people." Tony agrees, the others nodding along, even the two assassins that have stayed quiet upon entering back into the Tower.

"Hello." Darcy says throwing her arms out, "We're clueless over here. We'd like some answers. And where's Steve?"

"Everything's not all about boys, Darce." Jane scolds, shaking her head. Darcy smirks at her and looks expectantly at the redheaded Russian who has yet to remove her eyes from the young brunette with glasses.

"I expect you know considering you have spent the last 20 minutes quietly evaluating Jane and I to see if we smuggled some sort of illegal substance into the Tower. Or if we are a threat. One of the two, although my money is on the latter."

Natasha smirks at her before nodding as if completing her assessment. "You're smart. Okay, you're good. Steve and Pepper left, they'll be back in a little. But there are some things you need to know. Such as, why you're here, what your helping us do, and… about Steve's condition."

"Condition?" Jane repeats, her eyes casted downward as she thinks. Looking up at Natasha, Jane looks genuinely concerned for the Captain. "Is Captain Rogers alright?"

"Oh yes," Natasha says, happy that Jane and Darcy have real concern for Steve's well-being. 'Maybe I can trust these girls.' She thinks to herself. "Have a seat, and we'll explain everything."


	11. Chapter 11

The elevator doors lets out a loud, _"bing!" _before the doors open to reveal Pepper standing there, holding an overexcited, hyperactive 2 year old. Steve is practically vibrating with excitement as he searches around for two people in particular when they round the corner into the common room. As soon as his eyes set on the back of Natasha's head and Bruce's lab coat, a loud high pitched, "'Tasha! Booce!" fills the silence of the room.

Natasha turns instantly and Bruce looks up, forgetting about the two still, pale brunettes sitting on the couch. Just as soon as Natasha turns, Steve takes off running for her, a large grin on his chocolate covered face. Small, sticky fingers reach out for her and Natasha scoops him up, planting a kiss on his forehead, being mindful of the chocolate covering him. Steve squeals with excitement and reaches out to grab a strand of Natasha's hair, but she pulls away just in time to not get chocolate in her hair. "Whoa there, little man. Not so fast." Natasha states, grabbing a hold of his wrists. "You're filthy, you need a bath."

"No bath!" Steve frowns, putting his hands on his hips shaking his head.

Natasha copies Steve's movement with a frown of her own. "Yes bath!" Steve giggles at Natasha's frown before tugging on her arm.

"I wan down." He says. When Natasha places him on the ground, Steve takes off for Bruce and jumps into the scientist lap momentarily startling him. Bruce's arm wrap around Steve's torso immediately so he doesn't fall and offers him a smile after quickly composing himself. "Booce give me bath?" Steve asks innocently.

Shaking his head chuckling, Bruce stands with Steve in his arms. "Yes, I'll give you a bath. Come on."

"'Tasha come." Steve says, motioning for her to follow.

"'Tasha will be there is a second, Steve." Natasha assures, taking her previous seat again in front of Darcy and Jane. "I promise, go ahead with Bruce."

"Otay." Steve says just before Bruce rounds the corner and heads towards his room.

Turning back to the two girls on couch, Natasha raises an eyebrow waiting patiently for the questions. The room is silent for a while, even Tony and Clint are surprisingly quiet and Thor looks anxious waiting for his girlfriend to recover. It's a while before they do and, not surprising, Darcy is the first one to speak.

"That was… Steve?" Natasha nods. "Captain America?" She nods again. "Are we talking about the same super soldier that was defrosted from the ice less than a year ago?"

"The one and only." Tony replies.

"So let me get this straight," Jane interrupts. "You," she says pointing at the genius. "made some sort of machine that magically turned Captain Rogers from a 23 year old to a 2 year old. Now people are after him hoping to drain him of his blood in order to duplicate the super- soldier in million others to create an army of super soldiers. Using those soldiers, they plan to take over SHIELD and the government."

"Ding, ding, ding." Tony says placing a finger on the tip of his nose. "You got it right on the dot."

"And you're here to help Dr. Banner in the research department to see if you can find anything that will help us during this." Natasha says looking at Jane. "You can help her." She addresses Darcy, "but… are you good with kids?"

Before Darcy can open her mouth to say something, whether to protest or say yes, Jane interrupts. "She loves kids. She a kid herself." Darcy frowns at her before shrugging in agreement.

"Great, if a mission is to arise that would require all five of us and Jane and Pepper are busy than you will be put in charge of taking care of Steve." Natasha decides.

"Whoa, you should feel honored." Clint tells Darcy. "Nat is very protective of our miniature Captain. She barely trusts us to take care of him," Clint says pointing at Tony and Thor. "And she's known us for years."

"Only because you can barely take care of yourselves." Natasha rebuts, shaking her head. "But Darcy I warn you that if something were to happen to Steve on your care, the consequences will be dire and I hope you never will get to find out what happens to you if Steve is hurt or taken." Natasha threatens, her voice dark and low, but her face blank and neutral. Darcy gulps, biting her bottom lip nervously before shaking her head.

"It won't happen." She says, her voice shaking slightly in fear.

Natasha smiles at her before placing a hand on her shoulder and standing up. "Good, than we won't have a problem. Dr. Foster, you and Bruce will begin research down at SHIELD's lab tomorrow morning. Darcy, I will introduce you to Steve after he wakes up. He doesn't like strangers so try and be friendly. I apologies if he's shy and distant tomorrow. Don't take it personally, he just hates new people. Stark, show them to their new living quarters and I will see you both tomorrow."

And with that she turns and exits the room heading to Bruce's bedroom.

**(Meanwhile with Bruce and Steve)**

"Arms up." Bruce commands watching as Steve raises his arms the child giggling happily to himself. Smiling, Bruce grabs the hem of Steve's shirt and pulls it over his head as fast as he can, knowing full well that babies hate it when something is over their head, covering their face. Especially Steve.

Getting over the initial shock of being blinded for a moment, Steve's eyes catch into something floating in the air beside him. A dust bunny floats a couple centimeters in front of his face and Steve makes it his mission, as Bruce takes off his pants, to catch it in his hands. As the child occupies himself with trying to catch it, Bruce goes into the bathroom to start his tub and get his stuff ready. Giggling at the dust bunny, Steve blows at it going to make it go higher or be placed directly into his hands, one of the two. The blow does none of the sort except make Steve drool over himself in the process. He grins a toothy grin and runs a chocolaty hand through his hair, efficiently making himself even more of a mess.

By the time Bruce walks back into the he finds Steve in the exact spot he left him, but even more of a mess. "I leave you alone for 2 minutes and you've managed to dirty yourself even more." Bruce says in the voice he reserves for Steve only, an amused smile on his face. Playfully sighing, Bruce scoops Steve up into his hip shaking his head. "You're lucky you're getting a bath." Steve holds his hand out and Bruce stares at it in confusion. "What?" He asks Steve. There was nothing in his tiny palm, so what was he trying to offer.

But all Steve says is, "Some?" which confuses Steve even more. Until it dawns on him. Bruce realizes that Steve is trying to offer him the chocolate that covers his entire fist.

Laughing Bruce shakes his head going into the bathroom. "No thank you, Steve. I don't want any." Only Steve isn't happy with Bruce's answer and frowns at the scientist before reaching out even more. Bruce is about to protest, but a voice behind him makes him jump.

"I'm teaching him how to share." It says. "Pretend to take some, please. It will help with his development and learning process." Turning around Bruce comes face to face with the green eyed and red haired assassin.

Glancing between the two Bruce sighs, gives Steve a smile and pretends to eat some of Steve's finger covered chocolate. "Mmm, that's yummy. Thank you, Steve." Bruce comments. Steve nods his head, content with Bruce's acting and gives Bruce and Natasha a toothy smile, his drool starting to get on Bruce's lab coat. "Okay, bath time." Bruce says, placing Steve in the tub filled with luke warm water. Steve shifts uncomfortably in the tub, his hands reaching out to grip Bruce's wrist tightly in his tiny hands as he starts wincing, not really liking the water. Seeing how scared he is, Bruce starts to grab water with his free hand and run his hand softly down Steve's back efficiently wetting him in the process. Shushing him, Bruce comforts and assures Steve that he's okay. But Steve doesn't seem to believe him. Looking past Bruce, Steve reaches a hand out to Natasha pleading with his eyes as a hand continues to grips tightly to Bruce.

"It's okay, sweetie." Natasha coos, coming to sit beside Bruce. "Remember there's nothing to be scared of." She reminds him, running a hand through his damp hair. "The water won't hurt you and Bruce and I are right here." As if to prove her point Bruce lays his free hand on Steve's shoulder to comfort him.

Upon arriving back at the Tower, all the Avengers realized that, the first time they gave Steve a bath, he was scared of the water. Especially if it was cold. Clint found out the hard way.

It takes a while, but Bruce and Natasha manage to calm Steve down to the point where he isn't grasping Bruce's wrist. Hesitantly he drips a finger in the water as if testing it before letting out a loud giggle and splashing both hands in the water, wetting Natasha and Bruce in the process. Giggling, Steve reaches out to grab his toy ducky waiting patiently, as Bruce and Natasha scrub, clean and wash his body, for his time to get out of the tub.

"Hey, Nat. can you hand me his baby lotion?" Bruce asks, not taking his eyes off the playing toddler.

"Sure." Bruce doesn't hear or see Natasha leave or enter so he jumps in surprise when the baby lotion is suddenly in front of him, attached to a hand. "Sorry." Natasha chuckles as Bruce reaches up to take it from her hand.

Just as Bruce's hands make contact with the bottle, his fingers skim against Natasha's, making her catch her breath and him look up. He opens his mouth to say something until his eyes lock on Natasha's. They're eyes met- his brown and her green- and suddenly there locked in each other's gaze, the whole world seeming to stop around them. It isn't until that moment that Bruce, for the first time since meeting Natasha, has seen how beautiful Natasha really is. Of course, just like any other guy, he thought she was extremely attractive. Whether it was the fiery red head or the piercing green eyes. But he's never realized how gorgeous she really is, even without her unique striking features. It's the way her eyes sparkle in the light of the bathroom and the smile on her face when she's talking or holding Steve that gathers Bruce's attention unlike before. Bruce was a practical man, he knows an attentive women when he sees one. But never in his years of scientific discoveries has he ever seen anything so exotic, shocking and breathtaking that he's dumbstruck and speechless. It was such an overwhelming and new feeling to him and surprisingly... He liked it. He didn't just like it, he craves more of it. The feeling is so powerful and new that Bruce, even as a scientist and a human being, wants more.

Apparently not only Bruce is dumbstruck at the moment, but even the Russian spy seems dazed by the turn of events. Her eyes glazed over with something that neither she nor Bruce can put a name to. Something passes over her face, but it was too quick for Bruce to catch. Neither seem like they want to break their gaze or the moment they seem to be trapped in. And neither does. It's the loud giggle that breaks through their subconscious and the sudden splash of water that drenches their clothes and face, courtesy of Steve.

Natasha and Bruce jump from the sudden surprise their tiny teammate gave them and to clear the air from the awkwardness about to begin, Bruce gives a small cough before turning his attention to Steve. "Let's finish your bath so you can get to bed, huh buddy?"

"No bed!" Steve says with a smile, obviously playing and testing Bruce.

Chuckling Bruce starts rubbing baby lotion on Steve's body, ignoring the green eyes he knows are piercing through the back of his head.

Natasha continues to stare at Bruce, her mind whirling with many thoughts, but one main thought practically screaming in her mind. 'What was that?! The feeling...I've never felt it. What was it?' As if she couldn't stand it any longer, Natasha turns and leaves the bathroom leaving Bruce to tend to Steve while to recuperate from what just happened in that bathroom. Bruce visibly relaxes when he hears the bathroom door close behind him.

Sighing in relief, Bruce quickly, but thoroughly washes the rest of Steve's body before grabbing a towel and pulling him out. Wrapping Steve's wet body in his favorite, cozy warm towel, Bruce places him on his hip holding him up with one arm. Using his free hand, Bruce digs the heel of his hands into his eyes before massaging his temple. "What was that?" He whispers more to himself then the child in his arms.

At the sound of Bruce's whisper, Steve looks over at the man holding him with an adorable expression of concern on his tiny face. Turning his body so he's facing the scientist, Steve places both his chubby hands on Bruce's cheek a small smile on his face as if he's trying to reassure Bruce. "Otay?" He asks in his high pitched voice. Even at a small age Steve thinks of the wellfare of others.

Bruce smiles at him, grabbing Steve's hand in his own giving it a slight squeeze. "Yeah, I'm okay." Steve just raises an eyebrow, in a silent question. 'Are you sure?' Apparently the small child doesn't believe him. "Thank you for caring, Steve. I'm fine. Come on, let's get you dressed and ready for bed."

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

When it's time to put Steve to bed, Bruce searches for Natasha. She always is the one to put him to bed and without her, it's difficult to get him to lay down in his bed. Steve is already yawning, his eyes drooping slightly as he forces himself to stay awake, by the time Bruce locates Natasha. She changed from her wet clothes into a tank top, yoga pants and put her hair into a messy bun. He finds in her room, starring off into nothing, lost in her thoughts. He's about to knock, about to interrupt her thinking until he catches the look on her face. It's the same look he has on his face when he's trying to figure out a difficult situation. Trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together until it all made sense. Apparently Natasha wasn't having any luck with it and she frowns in frustration.

He decides to leave her to own her thoughts, that is until Steve closed eyes open and catch the sight of the red head sitting in her bed. "'Tasha!" Steve says as excitedly as his tired voice can manage. Looking up, Natasha notices the two standing in the doorway, and Bruce looks at her sheepishly, an apoplectic smile on his face.

"Sorry. Steve needs to be put to bed." Bruce says, holding Steve out to her.

"No, it's okay. Um..." She looks around uncertainty as if deciding something. "Okay." Standing, she grabs Steve from Bruce and follows him out of the room.

"I'll be with the others." Bruce says, turning to leave until a tiny hand falls on his shoulder.

"No, Booce! Come." Steve says curling and uncurling his fist in a 'Come here' motion."With 'Tasha and me." He says after a moment when he notices Bruce hesitant. Bruce doesn't answer as soon as Steve would've liked and the child can't help, but frown. Jumping out of Natasha's arms, Steve wobbles on his legs for a moment and both Natasha and Bruce are convinced he's going to fall. Their arms are outstretched to catch him instantly, but Steve waves them off finally able to balance on his chubby, small legs. Reaching a hand out, he grabs one of Bruce's large hands in his own and tugs on his arms in the direction of his room. Glancing over at Natasha, who gives him a shrug before going to walk beside the stumbling child. Bruce follows willingly.

By the time Bruce makes it to Steve's room, he finds the toddler making an attempt to climb on the bed by himself. Natasha stands by his side, a hand out stretched in case he falls. "Need help, Steve?" Bruce asks, chuckling.

"No. I gots it. I can do it." Steve says, grunting from the effort. After a good 5 minutes, Steve finally manages to get up on the bed, with a little push on his bottom from Natasha. "I did it!" Steve says proudly unaware of Natasha boosting him up.

"Yes you did. Good job Steve." Natasha and Bruce say in unison. Bruce comes up to sit beside Steve's bed as he climb in under the covers. After Steve is tucked in, Natasha takes a seat right beside the scientist, brushing back a stand of Steve's hair. When Natasha opens her mouth, the words that come out of her mouth shocks Bruce to an extreme. She's not speaking or whispering to Steve as Bruce assumed she always does when she put Steve to bed. But she's...singing. Singing a lullaby to Steve and by the look on their faces, it's a known one.

"_When you wish upon a star__  
__Makes no difference who you are__  
__Anything your__heart desires__  
__Will come to you__  
__If your heart is in your dream__  
__No request is too extreme__  
__When you wish upon a star__  
__As dreamers do__  
__Fate is kind__  
__She brings to those who love__  
__The sweet fulfillment of__  
__Their__secret__longing__  
__Like a bolt out of the blue__  
__Fate steps in and sees you through__  
__When you wish upon a star__  
__Your dreams come true__  
__Oh, when you wish upon a star__  
__Your dreams come true!__  
__Oh yeah, as dreamers do!"_

As the song comes to an end Natasha's voices still hangs in the end minutes after she had stopped singing. The room is dead silent and the only sound that fills the room is the soft breathing of the sleeping child beside them. Glancing over at her, Bruce notices a strand of hair has fallen out of her messy bun. Without thinking he reaches out, grabs the strand and tucks it behind her ear, his finger tips caressing her face. Natasha's breath hitches in her throat and she debates on whether pulling away or staying put. Turns out she doesn't have to decide because Bruce pulls away first. He leans down and plants a kiss on Steve's forehead, brushing his bangs out of his face. "Goodnight, Steve" Bruce whispers, standing from his spot. He nods at the red head, "Goodnight, Natasha."

"...Goodnight" Natasha says breathless as Bruce makes his way to the door. Before leaving the room, Bruce nods at her once again, flashing her a genuine smile. Then she's left alone, utterly confused and breathless from moments before as if Bruce's fingertips, when caressing her cheeks, knocked the wind out of her... "What was that?" She demands as if expecting an answer from somewhere, but silence is her only response.


	12. Chapter 12

"Well, look who's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning." Tony comments as Natasha stumbles in the room; her hair messy, eyes dull with exhaustion and clothes baggy on her body.

Bruce, Thor, Pepper and Clint turn around when Tony speaks and Clint cringes at the sight of his partner. Thor and Bruce throw her a sympathetic glance. "Yikes! What happened to you, 'Tasha? You look like you just got hit by a bus." The archer continues to express his surprise.

Natasha opens her mouth to throw a deadly threat at him, but it ends up being cut off by a large yawn. She closes her eyes and runs a hand through her hair to tame it, even in the slightest bit, and opens them again to find a cup coffee being handed to her. Attached to the coffee cup is a familiar hand. Looking up, she's face to face with Bruce and he offers her a genuine smile.

"Don't listen to him. You look nice." Bruce says, his cheeks being tinted a slight pink. "Here, you look like you could use this." He thrusts the mug into Natasha's hands, taking her elbow and leading her to the table where breakfast as been laid out.

"Lady Romanoff, may I ask what happened to you? You look as if you did not get any rest last night." Thor inquires, pushing her plate closer to her.

"I didn't. Steve kept me up." Natasha admitted, greedily gulping her hot coffee, not caring if the drink burned her throat.

"Why?" Clint asks, concerned for the welfare of his tiny teammate.

"Nightmares." Natasha says, sharing knowing look with Bruce.

"Why didn't you wake me? I could've stayed up with him." Bruce questioned. "Or any one of us? We would've helped so you to get some sleep."

Natasha waves him off, taking a bite of her eggs. "I didn't want to wake up because I didn't want to stress you out. And Steve, no offense to you guys, doesn't trust you with his nightmares. He's afraid you'll judge him. Besides, I could handle it. I just wish I had gotten more sleep than I did." Clint raises an eyebrow in the silent question, 'How much sleep did you get?' Sighing, Natasha puts her elbows on the table and rest her head on the heel of her hands. She stays like that for a couple of minutes and the boys are almost certain she fell asleep on them, but she reluctantly opens her eyes and mutters "3 hours."

"'Tasha, seriously. You could've woken me up." Bruce insists, shaking his head. "I would've been there to cover for you if you needed it."

"What was the point? I was already there with him, I can handle a couple less hours of sleep. It's nothing I haven't done before."

Bruce opens his mouth to protest, but Natasha sighs in relief when the elevator door opens and Jane and Darcy walk out. Thor grins broadly before standing and striding over to the two girls. "Jane! Lady Darcy!" Clasping a hand on Darcy's shoulder and sliding an arm around Jane's waist, Thor leads them to the dining room where the other Avengers currently occupy the table. "Good morning to you both." Thor continues, "How did your first night at the Avengers Tower fare?"

"Very well." Jane says with a shy smile at the public display of affection Thor is expressing. "Ms. Potts, Mr. Stark-"

"Mr. Stark is my father." Tony interrupts, waving off her formalities. "Call me Tony."

"And call me Pepper." Pepper smiles at the astrophysicist.

"Well, _Tony, Pepper,_" Jane says, drawing out his name as if testing it on her tongue. "Thank you so much for your generosity. Your Tower is beautiful."

"I love my room." Darcy says, being her usual blunt self. Jane rolls her eyes, before taking her seat with a sigh.

"Well, Darcy, if you like your room," Pepper starts with a smile, "You're going to love the indoor pool."

"There's an indoor pool?" She asks in awe.

Tony scoffs, "Of course there is. This wouldn't be a tower with an indoor pool."

"Awesome. I'm going to hit that later on today."

"Hold on a moment." Bruce says holding up a hand. "You and Dr. Foster still need to hold your end of the bargain for this mission. And you also need to meet Steve."

Natasha sighs in exasperation. "He went back to sleep 2 hours ago." Natasha complains.

"Let him sleep." Jane assures, placing a tentative hand on Natasha's shoulder. "I heard that you and he didn't get a good night sleep and I wouldn't want him to lose any chance he has at some rest."

"But I wanna meet him! He looked so adorable last night." Darcy winces, but shuts up when Jane glares at her. She frowns before asking "There anything I can eat?"

"Bruce made breakfast. Only it's not as good as when Steve use to make it, but it has sufficed for a couple of weeks." Clint says, sliding two plates over.

"No wonder it tastes good." Natasha says as realization dawns on her. "If Clint, Thor or Tony cooked it, we'd all be dead of food poisoning." The three boys frown at the red head who simply ignores them and stands to refill her cup.

Jane's about to thank Bruce for the food when a loud cry is heard throughout the room. it makes everyone jump, and Natasha and Bruce freeze, stopping what they're was doing. The sound, unfamiliar to Jane and Darcy, makes the two girls cringe and subconsciously put a hand over their heads. Luckily, in this situation, Darcy is smart enough to keep her mouth shut and Jane is forever grateful she is.

The cry causes all the Avengers to stand from their spot. They turn to move, but Bruce and Natasha both shake their head. Within a second, Natasha and Bruce are out of the room rushing to Steve's room to calm the distressed child, leaving the others standing in the dining room.

E8E8E8E8E8E8

**(Previously with Steve)**

Steve was trapped in a horrible nightmare- possibly the worst he ever had upon becoming a child again. And he's had a lot of awful ones. Only this one… he couldn't force himself out of this one. This was he was paralyzed and all he could do was watch his nightmare unfold in front of him. No amount of screaming or struggling would do anything. His only option was to watch.

_His mother was in a hospital bed, doctors surrounding her, blocking her from Steve's view. But Steve knew who it was by the connection he felt towards the person laying on the table. A mother/ son connection that was brought together as soon as he entered her womb. A connection so strong that no one could break it._

_Steve tried screaming for them to move, to let him pass, but he as soon as he took a step in her direction, she moved farther away from him. As if he wasn't making any progress trying to reach her, like he was glued to his spot and was helpless. The doctors didn't acknowledge him, as if he was invisible. Nonexistent, but his mother noticed him. Around the doctors that blocked them, Steve made eye contact with his coughing, sick mother. She reached a hand out to him, through the many doctors, her body shaking visibly and Steve does the same. Hoping, by some force, that he is able to touch, or most importantly, hold his mother's hand. "Momma." He called. She coughed harder, the bed shaking under her spasms and the doctor's moving in sync with one another as they moved faster, and furiously._

_His mother opens her mouth to say something, but something between a squeak/ cough interrupts her speech and all Steve can make out is, "Ba…" She tries again and is successful is completing the word she meant to say before. "Baby."_

"_Momma." Steve winces helplessly, tears streaming down his face. He desperately wanted to reach her, to have her hold him, but he knew that if he took a step towards her, she'd be pulled away again. He didn't want that to happen again, because then it would really break him. _

"_Momma… l-loves you." She stutters, her voice breaking on certain words. "S-Steve… momma l-loves you." She whispers, her voice seeming to become softer and softer with each passing words._

_Steve's eyes widen when he notices her eyes start to close. "Momma?" He calls, his body shaking, frightened by the way his mother's body becomes limp on the table. The shaking of her body abruptly stopping._

"_Love you…" His mother manages to get out before a doctor places something over her mouth, efficiently cutting off her speech, but increasing her coughing. Steve watched with frightened eyes as the doctors moved around his coughing/ wheezing mother who tries with all her might to gather breath for her hungry lungs. It isn't until moments later that she stops… Everything stops and the doctors disappear leaving her lying on the hospital bed alone. Her chest stills, her hands unclench from the fist they were previously in and her eyes close completely._

"_Momma," Steve urges nervously. He takes a tentative, testing step in her direction and sighs in relief when she isn't pulled away. Not wasting a minute, Steve rushes to his mother's beside, tears streaming down his face. Climbing onto her bed- with much difficulty- Steve grabs her arm and starts shaking her. "Momma. Mommy, wate up. Wate up! Pease, pease wate up!" Steve begs, his voice starting to increase with every plead and beg that comes out of his mouth. "MOMMY! Pease! Get… up! GET UP!" He cried, his shaking coming to halt and body sliding off the bed and onto the floor. The last thing he heard before waking up was the sound of a heart monitor flat- lining. _

Steve jerks awake with a slight gasp and looks around frantically. He is alone. He isnever left alone. He opens his mouth and the first things out of his mouth were instant, "'Tasha! Booce!" He screams out, voice cracking and breaking in places. "'TASHA!" Steve screams louder.

Natasha and Bruce slam open the door to his room to find Steve sitting straight up in bed, chest heaving heavily, blanket clutched tightly in his fists and tears running down his red and sweaty face. Small arms reach out to them instantly upon noticing them, and Natasha crosses the room in 3 large strides, scooping the child in her arms. Bruce follows immediately, coming to stand by Natasha's side, a hand on Steve's shoulder. Steve's fist ball up Natasha's shirt and he buries his face into the crook of her shoulder, muffling the screams that follow. Natasha's hand come up to cradle the back of his head as she rocks him softly, doing anything to calm him down. "Ssh, ssh, ssh. It's alright, it's okay." Planting kisses on his forehead, Natasha starts walking the vicinity of the room, holding Steve tightly to her. She tries her hardest to ignore the sounds coming out of his mouth and calm his furiously shaking body. Steve holds onto her even more tightly, starting to hyperventilate as he tries to catch his breath. "Baby, baby, baby, ssh, It's okay. I'm here, Bruce is here. You're safe." Natasha whispers coming to stand by Bruce's side so Steve can clearly see Bruce's face for comfort. Reaching out a hand, Steve grasps Bruce's shoulder tightly in his own, closing his eyes tightly.

It takes a while, but finally Steve is calmed down enough to breath properly and actually loosens his mad iron- grip on Natasha and Bruce. Sitting down on his bed, Natasha places Steve on her lap and lets him lean against her, planting kisses on the top of his head. Bruce kneels in front of them, a hand on Steve's tiny knee as he gives him a small genuine smile. Caressing his cheek, Bruce lets Steve lean into his touch and nobody says anything for a while. They give the child a minute to think. It's silent as both Natasha and Bruce let Steve bask in the comforting silence and the reassuring touches of both adults, letting his little mind relax, Steve raises a hand to wipe his running nose, but Bruce stops him and pulls out a handkerchief. Wiping his nose, Bruce peels Steve away from Natasha- the child not rejecting the switch of his holder. The child, actually, welcomes the incredible warmth of Bruce's arms and the intense comfort his arms bring to him. Steve closes his eyes and lets out sharp intakes of breath, his mind whirling from the memories and fading pictures of his dream.

After a couple of minutes, without warning, Steve turns to look Bruce and Natasha in the eyes and says bluntly, his voice showing no emotion. "My momma's dead."

It wasn't a question- it was a statement. One that told Natasha and Bruce that they had no chance of lying to Steve because it was one of all knowing, undeniable truth. Like he's known it for a while, but just now has the courage to voice it out loud. To say that Steve made Natasha and Bruce speechless is an understatement. They had absolutely no knowledge of what to say to the upset 2 year old. Steve knows his mother is dead, but the question remained… How? The silence that came after his statement made Steve look down with a sigh. Everyone he loved always went away. Now he really was all alone. Of course, he had Natasha and Bruce, but… they aren't his parents. They aren't his real mom and dad because no one can ever take their place in his heart and mind. More tears run down his face, as he buries his face in Bruce's chest, his shoulders shaking with his sobs. Bruce may not know what to say, but he knows what to do. Wrapping his arms around Steve's shoulder, he coos and shushes the child to try and calm him down. Of course, his efforts would be more worthwhile if he or Natasha knew what to say.

Taking his head out of Bruce's chest, he looks out at the starry sky beyond his window with glassy eyes, looking to the sky and God for answers. God would know what to do. His momma always told him if he were confused, angry or upset, to look up at God and ask him what he should do because he always knew what to do. He had all the answers and would help guide Steve because God had always been there in his dark moments. But now he couldn't help, but wonder if he was still there. After all, how could a God who loves him so much take his momma away? Did God still love him or did he abandon him too?

Before he could start to cry, Jane, Darcy and the other Avengers appeared in his room. Jane is carrying a dingy, blue familiar blanket in her hands. A flash of recognition passed through Steve's eyes, and a tiny smile appeared on his face. He took the blanket into his hands and rubbed it against his cheek. Tears spring in his eyes instantly when he sniffs the scent of his mother's perfume. Suddenly he was at peace. "Momma…" He whispers longingly. Looking up at the women that gave it to him, it surprises everyone- Jane including- when Steve willingly reaches his arms out to her. Natasha and Bruce are especially shocked. Steve doesn't trust new people easily and this new found trust in Jane is strange. Steve looks over at Natasha for confirmation, and she nods her head in agreement. Reaching down, Jane gently takes Steve in her arms and places him on her hips. Steve wraps his arms around her neck, a small smile on his face. "Dank you." Steve thanks the women who handed him the blanket.

His thanks and display of affection took Jane back, but not enough for her not to respond to the child. "You're so welcome Steve." She said giving him a hug. Looking back down at Natasha, she and Steve share a knowing look before she stands and grabs him back from Jane.

"Steve, this is Jane Foster. Jane this is Steve. Steve, Jane is here to take care of you in case Bruce, Thor, Tony, Clint and I are busy." Steve, now back to being a shy child, tries to bury himself deeper into Natasha's arms. "Don't worry; she's not going to hurt you. You're going to love her once you get to know her. She's really smart, and will take good care of you. I promise and you know I would never lie to you. Right?"

"Wight." Steve says putting his head on Natasha's shoulder, and with the hand that's not carrying the blue blanket, he waves at Jane. "Hi."

"Nice to meet you, Steve."

"And Steve, this is Darcy." Natasha says pointing to the brunette still standing with the Avengers. Motioning for Darcy to come up, Darcy goes to stand beside Jane, a smile on her carefree face. "Darcy is Jane's friend and is also here to help take care of you. She's really cool and fun; you'll have a great time with her."

"Oh, my gosh! He's so adorable!" Darcy gushes, reaching out and pinching his cheeks- much to Steve's dismay. He frowns at her, but smiles after Darcy makes a weird face at him. He giggles and offers her a "Missy Darcy," with a nod. "Oh, Steve, don't call me that. It makes me feel old. Just call me Darcy, or Darce, if you want."

"Otay, Darcy." Steve says testing out her name on his tongue. It's silent for a few minutes, not awkward, but comforting. The silence gives Steve a fewminutes to think. Something he regrets instantly. The peace was gone instantly and reality smacked him in the face. His momma was dead and he was never going to see her again. Silently, the tears streamlined down his cheeks and he let them flow into his blanket. It was a soul- crushing blow to know that the only person he really and truly loved and known had been snatched away from him. He crumpled forward and wept silently into Natasha's shoulder, clutching the blanket tightly to his chest. The sight of watching Steve cry absolutely broke Darcy and almost made her cry. But she held her ground and does what she always does best: Changing the subject to the distract him.

"Hey Steve, do you like movies?" Darcy asks, prompting him to take his head out of his shoulder. He gives her a small nod of his head. "How about pizza? And ice cream?" Steve's head shoots up at the mention of ice cream. His eyes sparkle with the happiness that he'd lost the minute he woke up. He nods his head enthusiastically, his sadness momentarily forgotten. "Come on then!" Darcy says, walking to the door, looking over her shoulder expectantly.

Looking up at Natasha with pleading eyes, Steve points at Darcy clearly asking if he can go with her. "Of course you can, Steve." Steve smiles at her and kisses Natasha's cheek before she places him on the floor, supporting his back in case he falls over.

Wobbling on his feet, Steve regains balance and rushes over to Darcy. He grabs onto her pant leg instantly to balance himself and looks up at her with big, innocent, pleading eyes. "Uppy?" Darcy, for a moment looks uncomfortable by Steve's request, but pushes down her anxiety at carrying a child. Reaching down, she hesitantly puts her hands under Steve's armpits and lifts him up easily. Bring him to her chest, Darcy looks at Natasha for help. Smiling, Natasha walks over and adjusts Darcy's arms so that she's holding Steve properly. "Ice cream!" Steve says once settled on Darcy's hip.

"Ice cream!" Darcy repeats with the same enthusiasm before bouncing out of the room. The others can't help but laugh.

"Well, now that he's distracted, thanks to Darcy," Bruce says, standing. He turns to Jane and addresses her, "Dr. Foster, I do believe we have work to do."

"Definitely, but would some go and supervise Darcy. I trust her wholeheartedly, but… she can be a bit... what's the word I'm looking for? Reckless when hyper, especially after ice cream."

"We can't. We're needed at headquarters in 30 minutes." Clint confesses, pointing at Thor, Tony and himself. "Speaking of which, we need to go. We're leading a group of agents to go and investigate the tunnel that SHIELD found. Probably won't be back until really late tonight or really early tomorrow. Depends on how you guys see it."

"Let's go kick some bad guy ass!" Tony cheers, rushing out of the room with Clint and Thor following.

Rolling her eyes, Natasha says, "I will." putting a hand on Jane's shoulder. "Dr. Banner, kindly escort Dr. Foster to her laboratory. If you both need anything, just tell JARVIS to contact me."

"And vise versa." Bruce says walking out of the room with Jane following closely behind. Glancing behind her, Natasha sighs sadly before putting on a brave front and going out into the common room where she finds Steve and Darcy already engrossed in "Scooby Doo" with pizza and ice cream in front of them.


	13. Chapter 13

Over the new few days, the Avengers Tower was a blur of activity. Someone always doing something about the mission, whether it was Tony, Bruce, or Jane down in the lab, Clint and Thor training the new recruits at headquarters, Pepper taking care of the media, Natasha, Darcy and Steve playing (it distracted him from nightmares. Thus, it was very important). No matter what time of day it is, the Avengers always had something to do. They filled free time with work because otherwise they might've had to think and thinking was something none of them wanted to do. Especially Steve.

Clint, Tony and Thor returned really early/really late on the same day they left, but with no lead on the organization. It was a quick-look-around-and-take-what-you-want kind of mission. As they suspected, the area was vacant when the jet descended. There was no one in sight in or outside the building or tunnel. The only thing there were a couple of blood samples, files with some Intel that SHIELD could use, but not enough to help them in defeating the threat. The only information the files gave SHIELD was a heads up of what they were planning for Steve, but they gave no information about the people involved in this plan. All they were able to capture were a few artifacts that Jane and Bruce are currently putting a DNA testing on, back up files, and a map with possible locations of their whereabouts. The map was very difficult to find, but luckily Clint was specially trained in the area of secret data.

As soon as SHIELD's hand got a hold of the map locations, Fury immediately gathered up rookies and with stern instructions, ordered Thor and Clint to train them for the upcoming missions they would face. Clint and Thor's day was filled with wincing rookies, harsh training, and- when Clint would get bored and want to traumatize someone on his team- crying rookies.

Pepper was extremely busy everyday trying to hold in the media with press conferences, meetings and live TV interviews. Pepper and the others were able to come up with a convincing back story of what happened to Captain America. They assured everyone that he is in fact still a part of the Avengers and has taken a leave of absent for a while. But he'll be back. Captain America wanted to explore the world and see what he had miss after being frozen for 70 years and that he is not, in fact, gone, and will never be. The tabloids and rumors calmed down drastically from Pepper's last TV interview, but not have gone away completely.

As for Darcy, Natasha and Steve, who had nothing to do with the mission- so far- their days were spent trying to do anything to distract Steve from his intense dreams that seem to come more frequently during the night. His dreams mostly consisted of death. Either his mother, Natasha, Bruce or Bucky- die over and over without him being able to do anything. As the days pass, Steve became despondent which worried Natasha and Bruce extremely. The happy child is gone, leaving a broken little boy in its place. After examining Steve in case there was something physically wrong with him, Bruce said that coupled with a dose of regression was nothing out of the ordinary for a toddler dealing with a death in the family- particularly one as acute as the Mother's. It was very unsettling to Natasha that she had to sit back and watch as the child in front of her broke down every passing day. It hurt her so much to know that she can't do anything to help him. She tried, but nothing worked. She was starting to fear that Steve would never go back to the same happy toddler was before he had that awful dream about his mother. She was scared that she'd never that child again and prayed to God that, by some extend, Steve would return.

For the next few days, the child's thumb never left his mouth and the blanket Jane had delivered him never let his side. Whenever anyone tried to get him to eat he just cried, so Natasha ended up having Bruce attach an IV to him so they fed him through a tube. Nothing was as bad as the nights, though. The nights were the worst time. Steve never got a good night's sleep. The last good night sleep he was able to get was the night before he found his mother had died. The most the others could get him to sleep was 3 hours. 4 at the most. The lack of sleep did nothing to help him, only made him weak and unable to do anything but sit in Natasha's arms- or whoever was holding him at the moment- and stare at nothing. He never got cranky, unlike most toddlers, and the only emotion he expressed was sadness. It almost broke Natasha's heart every time she had to look into his moist, tear- filled eyes. At night, Steve would cry himself hoarsely, or so hard that he threw up. Two of the nights, Natasha and him spent in the bathroom because she couldn't get him to calm down enough and he kept throwing up what little food they could get into him. Most of the time it was a combination of the two. The dreams grew worse and soon Steve seemed to barely be in touch with reality. The others were extremely concerned, Natasha and Bruce the most.

Bruce worries himself sick. He prescribes Steve some antipsychotics and had Natasha slip it into his food and milks/ juices, but it didn't seem to be working. Not even when he boosted the medicine up the most he can boost it up for a child's safety. After that, he had begun looking into what made Steve like this in the first place hoping, by some power, that he can help get Steve back to normal. Well… as normal as he can make his 2 year old leader.

Natasha worries herself to the point where she'd start crying if she couldn't get Steve stop. She hated emotions, always had. They were a liability and she tried never to have any. Although she, at first, tried to push herself away from her mini-leader some instinct pulled her back in and brought her to the dark side. The side she tried to avoid due to the many things she learns and experience upon taking it upon herself to take care of Steve. The one thing she never wanted to do was start getting attached to the child, but it seemed as though God had some uncanny ability to turn everything she didn't want into reality. Not only did she experience many different kinds of emotions, she experienced the most powerful emotion of all… Love. Love and Happiness. And those were two of the reasons, when she wasn't strong enough, that she cried. She cried because she loved Steve so much that she hated to see him so upset, so broken and so… unlike him. It broke her heart that she had to watch all the happiness wash away from his blue eyes that use to sparkle everyday and the smile slowly falter until finally it was gone.

She never wanted to get attached; it wasn't part of her plan. Originally, she was going to leave and not come back for a while. Let the others take care of the mess they made- specifically Tony. Of course she had been concerned in the beginning with trying to get Steve back to normal, but it wasn't her plan to fix the mess Tony made. Sooner or later, she had to admit that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon. But as soon as she held Steve for the first time and looked into his baby blue eyes, some instinct that was buried deep inside her sparked. So she came back from her 2 week mission that she arranged with Fury earlier than planned because she couldn't stand to be away from the 2 year old any longer. After being released from the hospital, Natasha- as soon as she began to spend time with Steve- felt her repressed instinct trying to rise up more and more. Slowly, as the days pass, the instinct was being dug out. Unearthed like a fossil. The instinct told her that she had to do something once she gave up on trying ignoring it, knowing full well that it wouldn't go away until she actually did do something. The child was grieving and she had to try and help him somehow because it was slowly killing her having to watch him continue this life any further. She was determined to do something, anything to make Steve better. she'd do anything to see the small hint of a smile grace his features again.

It was one night that she found out exactly what she had to do.

Laying Steve down in bed, Natasha went through his bed time routine before lying down beside him. Natasha allowed Steve to turn on his back and scoot closer to her, letting his back make contact with her chest. Reaching a hand behind him, his other one currently being sucked on at the moment, Steve wraps Natasha's arm around his small body and rested his head on her chest. They stay like that for a while, Natasha waiting- praying- that Steve will actually have a good night sleep that night, although it was very unlikely. Thankfully, for Natasha, the crying didn't start for about 3 hours. A new record. Turning around to face Natasha, Steve looks up at her with big, innocent blue eyes.

"I miss my momma." He says in a small voice, his voice breaking on the word 'momma'. Natasha stares down at him, heartbroken, and a hand comes up to caresses his moist cheek, wiping away the stray tears.

"I know sweetheart, I know. But she's in a better place. She's happier now and she's not in pain. God is watching over her and you." Natasha assures, planting a kiss on his forehead. Closing his eyes, Steve takes a couple of deep breath before wrapping a tiny arm around Natasha's torso, trying to bury himself deeper into her body. Burying his face into her chest, Steve's says something, but it's muffled by Natasha's chest. "What, Steve?" Natasha whispers to the child, seeing that he was starting to fall asleep.

Steve doesn't reply right away, taking deep calming breathes and curling and uncurling his hands into fist. And he doesn't reply for another 30 minutes, making Natasha think that he's probably forgot what he had said. Steve's almost asleep by the time he replies, repeating what he had previously said. "I wan you be my mommy." He whispers before closing his eyes and falling into a deep sleep, something that he hasn't had been able to do at night. And Natasha would've been thrilled that Steve finally fell asleep willingly, but what Steve had said stuck in her mind.

"_I wan you be my mommy. I wan you be my mommy. I wan you be my mommy."_ It was repeated as mantra in her head, slowly turning into the correct grammar sentence. "_I want you to be my mommy; I want you to be my mommy." _

It took her a while to grasp the meaning of what Steve meant and why he wanted her to be his mother. So he didn't have to be going through this pain right now. So he can have a mother again, even if she may not be his actual mother. But she'll be the closest thing he'll have to having one again… Now Natasha knew what she had to do. After waiting an hour and watching Steve sleep, Natasha anticipated him to be waking up screaming and crying, but after 30 more minutes of nothing happened, she decided she could leave for a moment. She had to speak to all the Avengers, Darcy, Jane, Fury, Pepper, Coulson and Hill. But for now, she'll speak with the Avengers, Darcy, Pepper and Jane. Fury, Coulson and Hill can wait until a reasonable time for her to tell them.

As soon as she slipped out of bed, she tucked Steve in tightly before she leaves the room. Closing Steve's door, Natasha looks up at the ceiling. "JARVIS," Natasha says in a hushed tone. "Locked Steve's door and inform everyone that I wish to meet them in the common room immediately. It's important."

"Of course, agent Romanoff," JARVIS says, following Natasha's example and lowering his volume.

"And-" Natasha starts, but JARVIS cuts her off.

"I will inform you in case young Captain Rogers awakens or shows signs of distressed."

"Thank you." Natasha whispers, walking into the common room and waiting for the others to arrive. She knew what she had to do, but she needed the approval and support of the others because her decision would affect them as well.

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Once all the Avengers, Darcy, Pepper and Jane were gathered in the common room, and everyone was seated, Natasha states- very blunt-

"I want to adopt him." It was so sudden that even Clint, along with everyone else, jumped. Not from the statement, but from the seriousness in Natasha's tone and facial expression. She meant business and was extremely serious about this. Jane opens her mouth to question her decision, but Natasha continues before any of them can protest. "Guys… the kid just lost his mother. He's not handling it well and he's going through a shitload of stuff that no child should ever have to go through. He just found out his mother died and he has to deal with it all over again. He's starving himself and his getting weaker by the day. Also, from the lack of taking care of himself, he's getting sick. Very sick. Something keeps telling me to do something and… I believe this is what I have to do."

"You have to do?" Clint questions. "Or you want to do?"

Natasha ponders the question for a long moment trying to form her answer correctly that won't require a lot of explanation. Biting her bottom lip, Natasha sits looking down at her hands, a concentrated look in her eyes. Bruce sees this and it's what possesses him to place a hand on her shoulder. Looking up at him, Bruce nods encouragingly at her which gives her the courage to answer looking straight into Clint's eyes. "Both. I want do this for him because I know this is the right thing to do. For him and me." The others process her answer for a long moment before one starts to nod and the others follow suit.

Pepper and Darcy are the first to recover from Natasha's news. Pepper squeals excitedly going to hug her red-headed friend. "Oh, Natasha, that's wonderful news. You're going to be great mother to him."

"Wow, that is really sweet of you." Darcy comments. "That kid is lucky to have someone like you in his life if you're going to go through this much trouble for him. Pepper's right, you're going to make a great mother." She gives Natasha smile. "I guess… congratulations are in order for the mother to be."

"Tis' a righteous thing you're doing." Thor says, placing a hand on Natasha's other shoulder. "You are a true, honorable warrior Lady Romanoff. Only the bravest can do something this noble and great. Congratulations."

"Thank you." Natasha nods at him. She looks over the rest of the faces that have yet to say anything. Jane offers her a smile and a nod. Tony looks shocked by Natasha's decision, but nonetheless gave her a smile. Pepper can't wipe the smile off her face,

"Natasha I will get the paperwork for the adoption as soon as possible. I'll take care of everything, I promise!"

"Thank you, Pepper." Looking towards her partner, she expects Clint to show some kind of disapproval to her decision, but is very pleased to see that Clint looks relatively happy. She sighs in relief at the smile her partner gave her, and she gives him a smile of her own. Biting her lip, Natasha hesitates before looking over her shoulder at the scientist that has yet to remove his hand from her shoulder."Bruce? Are you okay with this?"

"Of course I am. I think you're doing a wonderful thing Natasha. I support you and whatever you decide 100%." Bruce responds honestly. Natasha looks into his eyes and something crosses his features that she can't quite understand. But she'd seen it before. The day they found out about Steve being in danger, right after Steve and Pepper came back from the ice cream shop and while they were taking Steve a bath. It was so unfamiliar to her and it took her back a bit when she finally realized what it was:

Love.


	14. Chapter 14

'I have to get out of here' is the first thing that registers in Natasha's mind. Many thoughts whirl through her mind and at first she's dizzy and has a headache before she remembers where she is and who is currently touching her.

Standing up quickly from her seat on the couch, she shrugs Bruce's hand off and tries to think of an excuse to leave. But, thanks to JARVIS, she doesn't have to. "Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers is awake and crying for you." He says at that exact moment. Sighing in relief, Natasha rushes out of the room, leaving everyone bewildered at her sudden rushed behavior.

Running to Steve's room, Natasha now clearly hears the cries of the small boy behind those locked doors. "JARVIS, open the door." Natasha orders before she reaches it. Muttering a quick 'Yes, Agent Romanoff', the AI opens the door, allowing Natasha entrance into the room. The second Natasha enters Steve's room, the boy shoots up from his bed, tears streaming down his face as his tiny chest heaves heavily. Rushing, Natasha scoops Steve up in her arms and starts walking around the room in an attempt to calm the hyperventilating boy.

Steve was practically vibrating, and not with excitement. With fear. "Oh, Steve, ssh… ssh. It's okay. I'm here, I'm here."

"You… lefted… me. I-I.. d-don't want… you… to… leave… m-me." Steve says, his breathing starting to become rapid and sharp as if he's struggling to breath. Sitting down on the bed, Natasha puts Steve on her lap and turns him to face her.

"Hey, hey, hey, look at me. Steve, look at me." Natasha says, grabbing a hold of Steve's chin and forcing him to look at her. "Look at me and only me. Ssh… stop crying. I didn't leave you. I'm not going to leave you and I never will leave you. Understood?"

"B-But my mama-"

"But nothing. Your mama still loves you with all her heart. She may not be here in person to hold you and tell you that herself, but she'll always be here, Steve. In here." Natasha whispers, pointing at Steve's heart. "Your mama will always be here, in your heart and just like you'll be hers."

"D-Don't leave me… too." Steve says, sniffling and trying to catch his breath.

Putting her hands on either side of his tiny head, Natasha shakes her head. "I'll never leave you, Steve. I'll always be here. I promise." Kissing his forehead, Natasha holds Steve closer and rests his head on her chest. "I'll always be here for you and I'll never leave."

"Pwomise?"

"Promise." Natasha assures with a smile. Steve smiles and leans back contently into Natasha's body taking in the peaceful silence and the knowing that Natasha will never leave his side. Looking down at the somewhat content boy in her arms, Natasha tries to find a way to ask the question. She can't adopt Steve without his permission and his consent. And if she doesn't say it now, she'll always find a way to push off the question. It's now or never. "Steve?" She calls down to him. Steve hums in reply looking up at her. "um… How do you feel about me?" She starts out. Steve looks up at her curiously, prompting her to clarify. "Do you like me?"

"I no like you." Steve starts. "I wub you 'Tasha. Lots and lots and lots."

Natasha smiles down at him, caressing his cheek. "I love you too Steve. Um… h-how would you feel about me being your new Mommy?"

The look on Steve's face made Natasha sigh in relief. Steve looked like he was just given the best present any person could give a child. His face broke out into a huge smile, the first smile Natasha's seen in days. The sparkle in his eyes suddenly came back and he looked up at her with large eyes that made him look like a deer in headlights. Someone wanted to be his Mommy? Steve looked Natasha up and down. Natasha was really pretty and she had red hair, and momma's hair was a light brown that looked like it was red in the sunlight. And Natasha's smile was just as pretty as his mother's. This woman wanted to be his mother because his real mother couldn't be here anymore. That's something he's wanted ever since finding out about his mother. No one can take his mother's place in his heart, but he'd do anything to have what he had with real mother again. Maybe Natasha can be that person. He smiles up at her and asks the question on his mind, "Can I called you Mommy?" Steve asks innocently.

"You can call me whatever you want to call me." Natasha replies earnestly, kissing his cheek.

Grinning up at her, Steve snuggled into her chest and slips his thumb back into his mouth. "I wub you, Mommy." And in that moment Natasha never felt so complete or as happy. The moment Steve called her 'Mommy'.

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Natasha Romanoff had never seen herself as a mother. She saw herself as cold, ruthless and a master assassin. And yet, here she was. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed because Steve had opened up so much to her and she felt a wall that made it impossible for her to reciprocate. Nonetheless, the child opened up to her about grief and feelings and babbled about what his life had been like with his real mother and father. Most of the time Natasha didn't understood what Steve was saying because he runs his words together and they get broken up due to his sobbing. But Natasha never said anything and never judged Steve. She only listened and offer support and encouragement. Thanks to Natasha's encouragement, Steve began eating again. As for his dreams and hallucinations, he would come out of them much more and he felt like he had a reason to stay in reality… Because he had a momma. A momma that cared about him so much and that didn't want to fail him.

It was plain and simple; she didn't want to fail Steve. Even if she was his mother for a short period of time, she wanted to do it well. She wouldn't fail him because 'Failure' wasn't a word in her vocabulary. Motherhood was supposed to be instinctual, wasn't it? What could go wrong?

Natasha, when Steve fell asleep that night, slipped off to find Pepper and make phone calls. She wanted to start the adoption process as quickly as she can because she heard from Pepper that they can be lenghly.

Although, fortunately for her with the help of SHIELD, it only took a week before Steve was officially declared hers. And her adoption to Steve made it harder for people after him to track him. Especially if Natasha changed his last name and altered his appearance just a little bit. Fury was all for it after thinking about ways this adoption could become an asset and couldn't wait to get the process done as quickly as possible.

Ever since finding out Natasha wanted to be his mother, Steve has almost been back to his usual self. Sure, nightmares still get him, and he's not as hyper and happy as he use to be, but he's getting there. He's much better than he use to be so it's progress.

One morning, Natasha awoke and was pleasantly surprised to find that Steve had slept through the night. Early morning sunshine streamed through the window nearby her and she smiled. She looked to see Steve still fast asleep beside her before looking at the clock. It was 9:30- Steve finally slept through an entire night and two more hours later than usual. 'My poor baby, he was exhausted.' Natasha instantly thinks to herself without realizing it Leaning down, she kisses his forehead before slipping out of bed. She decided to go and make him breakfast. Walking into the kitchen, she finds Bruce already at the stove, scrambled eggs in a frying pan. Ever since she announced her decision to adopt Steve, she hasn't seen Bruce for days. He's always down in the lab and she would find time to go down there, but her main priority at the moment was Steve and his well- being. she's not avoiding him because of their last interaction, but they've both been busy. Too busy for them to talk about what happened that night before. Nothing's going to stop them from doing it now.

"Good morning." Bruce greets giving her a smile. But the smile faltered slightly when he saw the exhaustion in her eyes and the bags that were under them.

"Morning, Dr. Banner." Natasha greets taking a seat at the table, rubbing her eyes. She closed them and when she opened them again she noticed his stare. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Bruce asks, concern evident in his voice.

"I'm… fine." Natasha says between a large yawn, shaking her head to clear her foggy mind.

"Nat, you look exhausted." Immediately his mind went to Steve. "Nightmares?" He asks, already knowing the answer. Natasha nods tiredly, leaning her head on her hands. "Why didn't you-"

"Because I can handle it. You need all the rest you can get to keep the other guy from coming out. I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night. I still get plenty of rest." Raising an eyebrow at her, Bruce places his hands on his hips silently questioning her, but Natasha waves him off. Rolling his eyes, Bruce turns back to his cooking eggs and silently continues to make the breakfast for his teammates.

Biting her bottom lip, Natasha tries to get the courage to bring up the nights from days ago. The night they both put him to bed and the night she decided to adopt Steve. Although it was difficult for her to start with a conversation as awkward as this because she doesn't even know if what she saw was true. That couldn't have been actual love she saw. It was most likely care because they're team mates and Bruce cares about everyone on the Avenger team, especially Steve. But, if she doesn't talk to Bruce soon, she'll never know. "Hey, um…, Bruce-"

"Good morning, my friends!" Thor bellows as he enters the room.

"Good morning Thor." Bruce greets while Natasha can't help but frown at the table top. She missed her chance to speak to Bruce alone. Maybe she can try to get him away from the others and-

"Miss. Romanoff, young Captain Rogers is calling for you." Steve would wake up now. Sighing, Natasha stands from the table,

"I'll be back." She informs everyone before heading towards Steve's room. Upon entering, she finds the two year old trying to open the top drawer of his dresser that contains his many different outfits. Leaning against the doorway, Natasha crosses her arms and smiles at her small teammate who use to tower over her and would get things for her if they were high for her, but now can't even reach the top drawer of a dresser. This situation is so ironic to her that a giggle passes her lips, alerting Steve of her presence. Looking behind his shoulder, Steve gives her a sheepish grin.

"I do it Mommy." He assures her.

Walking into the room, Natasha opens the draw for her and pulls out an outfit Pepper put together when putting away Steve's outfits. "Yeah, but you don't have to do it. Mommies take care of their babies and I can't take care of you if you're trying to do things yourself." Steve frowns, but shrugs after considering what Natasha had just said.

"Uppy." Steve requested. Natasha raises an eyebrow, placing a hand on her hips waiting patiently for Steve's manner. It takes Steve a minute to realize what he forgot to say, "Uppy please, Mommy?"

"Much better." Natasha praises picking Steve up and placing him on her hip. "Come on lets get you dressed. Bruce made breakfast."

After quickly changing Steve's diaper and putting his outfit on for the day, Natasha carries Steve into the kitchen where everyone is starting to sit down to eat. "Good morning, Steve." Pepper says, giving the two year old a wave. Steve waves back at her and blushes slightly when Darcy suddenly plants a kiss on his cheek from behind. During the time Darcy and Jane have been there, Steve seemed to have formed a little crush on the crazy, fun teenage assistant. Everyone found it amusing and quite cute, especially Tony considering that he has something to tell Steve about when he becomes an adult again. He tried doing it to Darcy, but nothing fazed her and she joined in which made it no fun for him.

"Hello, sleepyhead, did you sleep well?" Darcy asks, taking a seat in the chair closest to Natasha and Steve.

"Uh- huh." Steve says, nodding. He reaches his arms out for the teenager to take him in her arms. With a laugh, Darcy takes Steve from Natasha and places him on her legs bouncing them. Loving the up and down motion, Steve lets out a squeal and Darcy chuckled as Steve's hands slap her knee in excitement. On some days and a lot of occasions, the Avengers could easily forget that Steve is Captain America. That's he not the person that was defrosted from the ice less than a year ago, but a regular two year old boy that loved to play and color with his Mommy and aunts and uncles. It was those sweet moments that made Natasha smile and her heart flutter with her undying love for the child on Darcy's lap.

"Are you hungry, Steve?" Darcy asks him, halting her shaking legs after realizing that Steve was starting to get sick. After a moment, Steve nods. "What do you want to eat?"

Looking across the table, Steve smiles at the sight of seeing his 'Uncle' Thor eating a stack of pop tarts. It made his stomach growl just looking at it. Pointing at Thor's plate, Steve replies "Po'arts!" excitedly. Thor frowns at Steve's response. He hated sharing his pop tarts with his teammates, he wouldn't even share with his girlfriend if she asked. His pop tarts were his and only his. Jane notices Thor's frown and gives him a look,

"Thor-"

"Mine!" Thor complains, pulling his plate closer making him look like a stubborn child. Steve stares up at him with large, blue eyes and his lower lip sticking out. Darcy starts bouncing her leg again, softly and slowly, to cheer the child up.

"Thor, share." Jane orders, her voice hardening at the sight of the pouting two year old.

"But, Jane-"

"Don't 'but' me. I don't care if you don't share with everyone else, but you will not teach Steve that kind of behavior. He's still learning and is looking up to you, so you will share with him." Thor pouts and his shoulders fall in defeat. "Don't pout, now give Steve a pop tart." Jane hides her smile behind a napkin.

Unwillingly, Thor slowly reaches out and gives Darcy one of his pop tarts so she can feed Steve. Darcy hands Steve the pop tart and the once saddened child smiles up at his 'Uncle'. "Than' you, Unca T'or!" Steve says in his high pitched voice. Thor mumbles something in reply, not loud enough for anyone but Jane to hear. She smacks him upside his head and he gives her a sheepish grin before pulling her to his side. She laughs and gives him a kiss for his generous donation to the baby Steve.

Tony and Clint exchange a glance before bursting into laughter, Steve following suit because of how ridiculous both men look. Shaking her head, Natasha sits down beside the teenager and child and starts eating her own breakfast.

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**(Two Days Later…)**

'_Okay, Natasha. Don't be a wimp. Just go up to him and ask him. Be straight. Don't be such a pansy!' _She commands herself, bucking up the courage to walk up to the scientist bending over a telescope. He was so focused that he hasn't noticed Natasha walk in and still hasn't, his focus all on what he's inspectingat the moment. Jane sits next to him, but her gaze is obviously planted on the book she's reading and she either has noticed Natasha, but hasn't called her out, or doesn't care that the redhead is here. Whatever reason it is, Natasha is grateful for it.

'_Don't be a coward. Don't be a coward._' Scoffing, Natasha pulls back her hair and stands up straight before walking over to Bruce. "Hey, Bruce?" Natasha calls, taking a step back when the scientist suddenly jumps, her voice frightening him. Bruce's hand goes to his chest as he takes a large deep breath.

"Natasha." He says as he breathes out. He cracks a smile, turning around to face her as he takes off his goggles. Running a hand through his hand he speaks, "I didn't see you. You scared me."

"I'm sorry." Natasha apologizes, but Bruce waves her off.

"It's alright." Taking off his gloves, Bruce walks over to another bench, near the only couch this lab has. Natasha follows silently. "Where's Steve?" He asks upon noticing the two year old not with her.

"With Pepper. She's watching him for the day."

"Why is that?" Bruce asks, confused. Natasha never leaves Steve with someone else without her supervision.

"Because I wondering if we could talk." She states, a little nervously.

"Sure." Bruce motions towards the couch. Natasha's eyes glance back at Jane for a moment, but long enough for Bruce to catch. "Alone?" He clarifies.

"Please." Bruce gives her a nod, slipping off his lab coat. "Can we go… out? Just as friends to talk." Natasha hurriedly adds at the expression on Bruce's face at her question. Bruce nods, giving her a smile.

"Do you think I could take a shower before we go?" Bruce asks, looking down at himself, with an adorable expression of embarrassment. Natasha almost giggles, but keeps a straight face.

"Of course." She says to which the scientist smiles gratefully.

"I'll only be twenty minutes."

"I'll be waiting in the common room." Bruce rushes out of the room and into the elevator, hitting the button for his floor. Natasha opts for taking the stairs and sits down in the waiting room, her leg shaking slightly due to her nerves. '_How am I gonna tell him? How am I going to talk to him without making it awkward?' _Natasha thinks, putting her head in her hands…

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Bruce only keeps Natasha waiting for 10 minutes before he emerges in different clothes, and his wet hair combed neatly. She looks up when she hears footsteps indicating someone had entered the room. "Where are the others?" Bruce asks when Natasha stands.

"Clint and Thor are at SHIELD, Tony is speaking with Hill, Coulson trying to get more information, Darcy is in her bedroom, and Pepper and Steve are in his bedroom watching 'Monsters Inc'. And Jane is, as you know, still in the lab."

"So when we leave it will just be Jane, Darcy, Pepper and Steve in the Tower."

"Yep."

"Do you think that's safe?" Bruce asks, worry and uncertainty lacing his tone.

"Don't you forget they have JARVIS. He'll make sure nothing happens to them and besides the safety protocols for Steve are still activated. Right, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Ms. Romanoff." JARVIS responds.

"They are fine here." Natasha assures.

Bruce bites his bottom lip nervously for a moment before shrugging and nodding his head towards the elevator. In less than 5 minutes, the two of them are on their way to coffee shop a couple blocks away from the Tower…

"So…" Bruce starts as he and Natasha sits down at a table in the coffee shop. "What's up?" He asks, raising an eyebrow.

Natasha slowly takes a seat beside him, rubbing her hands together before she has to wipe them on her pants to get rid of the sweat slowly building up on them. She doesn't understand why she feels so nervous about him, she never had before. It was always business between them and as soon as the sudden confusing emotions entered in their relationship, it made it harder to speak to him without getting nervous. Her palms get sweaty, buffer flies enter her stomach, her heart pounds and she can't speak. And it upsets her that she can't figure out why and why she can't speak to one of her good friends like she used to. She figures if she cleared the air between them it would make everything go. If only she could just get the damn sentence out. "Um… B-Bruce? You… You know that night when we um…" Bruce raises an eyebrow at the sudden nervousness Natasha shows towards him and how she's shuddering over her words.

"Nat," Bruce says, concern written all over his face. He reaches over across the table and places a hand on top of hers that currently lies on the table. Natasha's breath hitches as soon as Bruce's skin makes contact with her own. Her body shakes once, as if she had a sudden chill, when a spark is sent up her spine from Bruce's hands on top of hers. "You can tell me anything." Bruce insists, not noticing her reaction to him touching her. Natasha bites her bottom lip, her gaze on their touching hands. Bruce keeps his eyes on her face. "Nat?"

"Hello," a lady says walking up to them, an apron around her waist. "My name is Betty, I'll be your waitress for today. What can I get for you?"

"One plain, strong, black coffee." Bruce says ordering for Natasha without looking away from her. "And Earl Grey tea, please."

"Alright, I'll bring that right out for y-… Bruce?" She gasps abruptly, her gaze now settling on Bruce's face. At the sound of his name, Bruce- unwillingly- tears his gaze away from Natasha's face to the gasping waitress standing in front of him. He's about to ask her something, when he gets a really good look on his face.

"Betty…"

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**(With Pepper, Steve, Darcy and Jane)**

"Darcy!" Pepper calls out, carrying a sleeping Steve in her arms when she enters the common room. "Darcy! Where are-" Pepper jumps when Darcy's voice speaks up from behind her.

"What's up? You called me."

"Darcy, you scared me." Pepper says, turning around to face the intern.

"Sorry, Pepper." Darcy apologizes, walking up to her. "What's up?"

"Could you watch Steve?" Pepper asks, passing the sleeping child over. "I have to run a couple of errands and Tony wants me to meet him down at headquarters so we can come back together."

"Sure, no problem."

"Thanks so much." Walking over to the couch where a purse lays on the edge, Pepper grabs it before heading towards the elevator. "I'll only be gone two hours. Three at the most."

"We'll be here." Darcy says, using Steve's tiny hand and waving bye at the CEO before the elevator doors close. Sighing, Darcy looks down at Steve and brushes his hair back from his forehead before making her way to his room. Setting him down in his crib, Darcy makes herself comfortable on Steve's larger bed, turning the TV on- making sure to lower the volume for Steve- and resting her head on her elbow.

It stays like that for a long time, sometimes Darcy would occasionally busy herself with playing with Steve's hair if the show that's on is extremely boring. But when JARVIS speaks, all the relaxing and calming feeling in the room vanishes at once. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" JARVIS's alarms start beep and Darcy instantly finds metal starting to drop down to cover the door, the windows being bolted in and all electronics in the room being shut off at once. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" But what gets Darcy the most is when Steve's crib starts to close in on itself, making a metal cage around him. Panicking, Darcy reacts without thinking. She plucks Steve out of his crib before the cage has finished being put together and when she hears it lock in place she mentally curses at herself.

Steve, who had been asleep for a few hours, suddenly jumps awake when Darcy grabs him and pulls him harshly to her chest. He looks around in panic for a moment before starting to cry. Darcy practically goes wide eyed when she sees a shadow outside the window and almost drops the crying child in her arms, but gets a grip on him tightly. "Ssh, it's okay, it's okay." Her voice is unsteady and she looks around the room trying to find a place to hide Steve. She curses herself again for taking him out of the crib. She doesn't care what happens to her as long as Steve is safe. Her eyes land on the closest. "Perfect." She whispers to herself, despite the nervous shake of her voice. 'First I have to calm Steve down. Hiding him won't do any good if he's just going to cry, giving away where he is.'

"JARVIS, shut the alarms off." Darcy screams over the alarms. They shut off at once and the only noise is Steve's crying. Nodding her thanks, Darcy starts walking in the direction of the closest. "Okay, Steve, ssh, ssh, ssh, can you look at me?" She requests, sitting down in a rocking chair near the closest. She places Steve on her knee and turns his body to face her, tears streaming down his scared face. "Steve, look at me." His eyes lock on hers and he grabs tightly onto a lock of her hair trying to pull himself closer to her. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay. It's me, it's Darcy. Everything is going to be alright, you're going to be fine." She assures him, bouncing her leg slightly.

"Mama, mama, mama." Steve winces, crying harder.

"Mama's coming. She's coming. But I need you to be a big boy for me. Can you do that? Can you show Auntie Darcy and Mama that you can be a big boy?" Steve just cries, scared and Darcy swears she sees someone standing outside the door. 'Shit!' "Steve, Steve, Steve, ssh… look at me. Okay? Do you want to play a game?" Steve shakes his head, raising a hand to rub his eyes. "Yes you do, come on let's play a game. Let's play hide- and seek. Huh? Sounds like fun right. Now before we play you have to stop crying so we can. You don't want to get found right?" Darcy says, her voice starting to go to a whisper. After a moment, Steve shakes his head, his crying starting to weaken into a whimper. "Right, because you want to win right?" Steve doesn't hesitant to nod this time. "Good, now you're going to hide. Somewhere really good, okay? So Darcy can't find you. You have to hide in this room only." Darcy says, purposely placing Steve facing the direction of the closest. Steve looks back at her, an uncertain look in his eyes. Darcy has to encourage him even more for him to start making his way to the closest. When he reaches the door he slides it open using all his strength and squeezes himself inside with all his adult sized shoes and clothes. Once the door closes Darcy sighs in relief before starting to make her way towards the locked door. "JARVIS is anyone in the hallway?" Darcy whispers.

"Not at the moment ma'am, but I suggest you run. My systems are now malfunctioning and my cameras have been shut off. Someone must have cut the-" And JARVIS voice abruptly stops as if he's been unplugged. Unexpectedly everything starts to go back to the way it was. Steve's crib returning back to normal, the metal around the door sliding back up. Darcy's eyes widen and she just enough time to run to the side of the bed and duck before the door burst open.

"Hello… Anybody here?"

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**(Meanwhile with Bruce and Natasha)**

Bruce whispers, his eyes going wide. Natasha looks up from their touching hands when she hears Bruce whisper and finds the scientist and the waitress both locked in each other's gaze. The pad dropped from Betty's hands and Bruce's let go of Natasha's hand to turn his body to fully face her. Natasha notices this look they share. As if they were the only people on this Earth. she can't help but let a pang of jealousy flow through her.

Frowning at Bruce, she removes her hand from the table and crosses her arms before purposely coughing to ruin the moment. "Hello," Natasha says somewhat bitterly to Betty. "Do you know each other?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Natasha." Bruce says, coming out of his trance and turning to face her with a smile that wasn't there before Betty showed up. "Natasha this is Betty Ross. Betty was my…" Bruce hesitates, not really knowing what to call Betty. Luckily he didn't have to.

"We dated a while back."

"Yes, and Betty this is Natasha Romanoff. She's a very close… friend of mine." Bruce says and Natasha clenches her jaw slightly at the word 'friends'. But of course Bruce doesn't seem to notice and neither does Betty.

"It's nice to meet you." Betty says, reaching a hand out. Natasha stares at the hand for a long moment before reluctantly reaching out and shaking it.

"You too."

"Bruce, I never thought I'd see you again." Betty gushes, opening her arms. Bruce stands from his seat and gives her a nice, big, long hug. Natasha growls under her breath, only loud enough for her to hear. "It's been so long." Betty says, wrapping her arms around his waist, her hands going a little too low for Natasha's taste.

"Yeah, well it is a small world. Um, Bruce, can we go now?" Natasha interrupts purposely. They pull away and Bruce looks over to see Natasha sitting there with an irritated look on her face. He then remembers why they came out. Natasha stands, gathering her belongings before walking towards the door.

"Betty, it was nice seeing you." Bruce says hurriedly, hoping Natasha doesn't leave without him, knowing she would do that if she were angry enough. "We'll talk later, okay?"

"Okay, wait, Bruce." Picking up the pad, Betty scribbles something down on the back of one of the papers. She tears it out before handing it to Bruce. "My new number. Call me and maybe we can do dinner sometime."

"Definitely." The door opens and slams, indicating Natasha has left the building. "Bye!" Bruce rushes after her only catching her in the nick of time and yanking the passenger door open. He jumps in just as the car starts to move and he sighs in relief once the door closes. Natasha keeps her eyes on the road and rolls her eyes as she drives out of the parking lot. "I thought you were going to leave me." Bruce admits, noticing her eye roll.

"If I was actually trying to abandon you here, you wouldn't have made it into the car." Natasha spits, angry.

"Hey, Nat, are you okay?" Bruce asks, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Natasha shakes off his hand and speeds up on the road, making Bruce clutch the seat beneath him. "I'm fine." She says.

"No you're not, what's wrong?" Bruce asks, gaining confidence in talking to the angered assassin. As soon as he fishes his sentence the car comes to a complete stop, Natasha stomping on the brakes with all her might.

"You want to know what's wrong?" She spits at him.

"Yes." Bruce replies calmly, unfazed by her attitude.

"You! That's what's wrong with me!"

"Me? What did I do? If I did anything to upset you I am-" And suddenly Natasha lurches forward, putting her hands on either side of Bruce's face before slamming her mouth onto his.

For a moment Bruce is stunned, his whole body tensing and his movements halting. Natasha continues to kiss him, her eyes closed and her body practically leaning over him. By the time she feels she needs air, Natasha pulls back with a loud gasp, taking in much needed air as she turns away from Bruce, his body still frozen in place, but his eyes roaming over Natasha's face. Starting the car again, Natasha starts driving and her face is neutral and blank as if nothing happened. As if she didn't just lean over and kiss her friend straight on the mouth without any permission or anything. To her, the kiss never happened. To Bruce, he was still trying to process what she did and why.

"Natasha…" He whispers. Natasha ignores him as if he didn't speak and Bruce would've pressed on if her phone hasn't started ringing. Taking it from her pant pocket in one swift motion, Natasha answers the call.

"Agent Romanoff." She says in an emotionless voice. Yep, she's back at being an assassin. Bruce doesn't know who's on the other line so he turns his head and looks out the window trying to comprehend what just happened minutes ago. The kiss… slowly, a grin starts forming on his face. He just kissed Natasha. He, Bruce Banner, had just kissed Natasha Romanoff. The cold- blooded master assassin. Well, technically it was Natasha who kissed Bruce, but that's not the point. He's pondering on if he should return the kiss after she's done with her conversation on the phone, which would most likely end up with her punching him in the face, but he'd take it just to kiss her one more time.

Only when Natasha instantly slams on the breaks, curves the car around, presses on the gas pedal and shuts her phone Bruce realizes something is wrong by the look on her face and the speed of her driving. "What happened?" He asks becoming serious, the kiss being lost somewhere in his mind. "Who was that?"

"Tony. There was an attack at the Tower." Natasha says, her eyes full of concern and worry.

"Steve." Bruce says instantly, his own worry making his heart drop into his stomach.

"He's fine. Darcy hid him before anyone could touch him. Tony and Pepper have him. But…" Natasha says trailing off. Bruce catches her nervous glance his way.

"What? What is it?" Bruce asks turning his body to face her, biting his bottom lip hard.

"… They took Darcy. She's not at the Tower."


	15. Chapter 15

"Mama, mama, mama!" Steve winces, tears running down his cheek as he buries his face in the crook of Pepper's neck. "Mama, mama!" He grips the fabric of her shirt tightly in his small hands and tugs on her sleeve, urging her to hold him tighter. She tried desperately to comfort the distressed child. But, so far, nothing had cheered him up. The only two people that can easily cheer him up and who he currently wants at the moment are both gone.

Steve wants Bruce and Natasha, but he really wants Natasha. He repeatedly mumble'Mama' and once in a while 'Booce' makes its way pass his lips. There's nothing the others can do to please their tiny teammate. Although Tony knows they are on their way, he hopes that they hurry. Steve is becoming more hysterical every few minutes, his mind still back an hour when he last saw Darcy and how he was awoken by JARVIS's loud alarms.

Pepper tries her best to comfort the scared child, walking around the vicinity of the room rocking him, bouncing him as she also tries to multitask and comfort the distraught astrophysicist sitting on the couch, Thor right seated next to her. Tony and Clint- who had returned home with Thor as soon as they heard of the attack- offered to take Steve upon noticing her distress, but she shakes her head, holding Steve tighter to her every time they open their arms to the child. Steve doesn't seem to want to leave the arms that are holding him right now either. He shakes his head at Clint and Tony and winces, waiting for Natasha to come back so his Mommy can hold him.

Thor holds Jane against his side while she cries for her missing friend, guilt filling in the pit of her stomach. Looking up at the demigod, Jane blinks away the tears as best as she could, but one manages slip down her face. Using his thumb, Thor wipes it away, pulling her closer to his side. Sniffing, Jane curls in on herself, resting her head on Thor's chest. "Jane?" Thor calls, making yet another attempt at trying to get her to talk. Everyone currently occupying the common room has all spoken to her trying to get her to speak, but she had remained silent. She hasn't spoken since Tony and Pepper found her in Steve's bedroom, pale white, statue still with a piece of fabric pressed against her chest as she stares out the broken window where, if you look just close enough, you can see a stain of red blood on the window sill. Darcy's blood, JARVIS confirmed as soon as Tony got him back on line, still unsure how someone was able to hack into his system and shut him down. It was near impossible to outwit Tony Stark, or at least that what he thought because apparently there is someone who was smart enough-and brave enough- to get into his Tower and leave without a trace. Whoever did this was very stealthy, smart and calculated.

A loud wail fills the silence the minute the elevator's door open. Everyone turns to see Natasha and Bruce standing in doorway for a second before they rush out, both heading towards Pepper and Steve.

"Steve!" Natasha cries, opening her arms for the strawberry redhead to hand him over.

Picking his head up from Pepper's shoulder, Steve sobs harder "Mama!" He cries, leaning his body halfway over Pepper's arms, the CEO almost dropping him from his sudden lunge. As soon as Natasha's hand makes contact with Steve's arm, she pulls him out of Pepper's and into her embrace, crushing the child against her chest. Steve makes some sort of sound between a sob, and a gasp when he feels the familiar, warm arms which means his mother is carrying him. He wraps his arms around her neck, taking a handful of red hair as he leans his chin on her shoulder trying to calm his increasing sobs.

"Is he hurt?" Natasha asks the others, rocking Steve slightly.

Bruce is at her shoulder, his arms open towards the child who seems to hesitant before reaching out to him. "Give him to me." Natasha's arms tighten around Steve, her body becoming tense as her jaw locks. She just got him and she won't give him up for a while. Steve looks back at her confused, his eyebrows knitting together. He mutters a soft 'Booce' before laying his head on Natasha's shoulder. "Nat, I need to see if he's okay."

"He's okay." Pepper assures, taking a seat next to Tony on the couch. "JARVIS made sure of it."

"What happened?" Natasha demanded, leaning her head against Steve's, tucking his tiny body in her arms.

"We don't know. JARVIS was shut off and he only caught the beginning of it. After he was shut off, but-" Tony nods at the silent astrophysicist, "no one knows and she hasn't said a word since we got here." Tony says, lowering his voice at the last part. Looking over at her, Natasha notices the glazed look in Jane's eyes and at the tenseness of her body, a small piece of fabric still clutched tightly in her hand.

Natasha knows what's wrong with her before Bruce says it, "She's in shock." He says immediately, also noticing her unusual behavior and body language. Walking over to her, Bruce lifts her head to level with his own taking his time examining her as Thor moves off the couch to allow Bruce space. After a moment he begins to speak with her, yes or no questions. "Dr. Foster? Jane, can you hear me?" Everyone waits with baited breath for a response, anything that would give them an idea of what world Jane is in at the moment. It's a while before she gives some sort of response, non-verbal of course. She nods her head once, staring into Bruce's eyes, still not entirely here. "Do you know what day it is?" She nods again. "Where you are?" Nod. "Can you tell me?" Bruce asks. This time she doesn't respond at all, no shake of the head or nod or anything. Sighing, Bruce stands and turns to Thor. "Take her to her room, she needs to rest. If she doesn't talk tomorrow morning I'll have to take her down to the medical center and see if anything else might be wrong."

"What do you mean?" Thor asks, worry evident on his face.

Bruce shrugs, "Some people handle shock differently. Some don't speak, but still function. Some don't function or speak. It just depends on the brain capacity and how much they can handle. I'll examine her tomorrow." Thor considers this for a moment before nodding and scooping Jane up in his arms. He leaves down the hallway, his footsteps growing quieter the farther away he walks.

No one speaks, no one moves. Steve falls asleep somewhere in the silence and now snoozes peacefully on Natasha's shoulder. She looks over at the others sharing the same worried expression on her face, the same thought running through all their heads. 'Who's doing this?'

The AI is the first to speaks for a while. "Sir, Director Fury is on the line." No one says anything, not even Tony and when Pepper looks over she finds him lost in his thoughts. She has to nudge Tony to get him to respond to his AI.

"Yes, J?"

"Director Fury."

"Put him on."

"Yes, sir."

It's only a few seconds before Fury's voice fills the common room at the exact moment Thor steps back into the room. "You're needed."

"You heard?" Clint asks, already securing his bow and arrows, which seemed to appear out of nowhere, on his back.

"Yes. What happened?" Fury demands.

"No one, but Jane knows and at the moment Dr. Foster is out of commission. She's in shock." Bruce explains.

"You all need to get down here. It involves Miss Lewis." Fury says, leaving no room for discussion on the topic.

"We've been contacted."

Natasha bites her bottom lip, instinctively holding Steve tighter to her. "By who?"

"You know who." Fury states darkly. "They're threatening us."

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

Steve stares up at Natasha with pleading eyes, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout. His eyes fill with tears and whimpers escape his partly closed lips. His hand clutches tightly into Natasha's wrist, tugging on her arm, urging her to pick him up. He didn't want her to go. He knew Natasha and the others were leaving, but he didn't want them to go. Natasha just came back and Steve just got his mother back. He lets out a soft cry, making grabby hands in the air at her.

"Mommy," Steve winces. "I go wif you! I go wif you." Making yet another attempt at trying to get Natasha to pick him up, Steve's tears stream down his face.

Biting her bottom lip, Natasha sighs and bend down in front of the couch, her cat suit making it slightly uncomfortable. She catches Steve's chin and forces him to look at her, a sad look in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Steve, but you can't come. It's okay though, Mommy's going to be back. Mommy will be back." She assures the fretful child.

But it's not enough for Steve. He really wanted to go with her."But Mamma, I wan ago wif you. I wan ago."

"You can't baby." Natasha says, her heart breaking.

"But you're going to have Pepper to play with. Doesn't that sound fun?" Natasha persuades, trying to urge Steve to move closer to the CEO who is currently whispering with Tony in the corner, glancing nervously around her.

But Steve is persistent. He shakes his head, "Mommy,"

"We'll be back," Natasha assures, detaching Steve from her body. Placing him on the couch, she caresses his cheek giving him a smile. "I promise and you know Mommy doesn't lie to you. You're going to have a great time with Pepper. Right, Pepper?" Natasha says louder, catching her friend's attention. Giving Tony one last harsh look, she puts on her business mask and allows a fake smile to grace her features.

"Of course!" Pepper exclaims, taking a seat beside him. Poking him in the belly slightly, to which he giggles, Pepper smiles down at him. "Steve, guess what Tony bought us to play with?" Reaching beside her, Pepper pulls out a bag full of art supplies. Steve's eyes slightly perk up at the sight of the bag. "Crayons and paint to draw with. I remember you said you loved to draw, do you still like doing it?" Steve nods, a smile starting to form on his face. Pulling Steve into her lap, Pepper wraps her arms around him. "Well, why don't you spend the day with me and we'll watch movies, we'll make drawings, and we'll eat lots of food. What do you say?"

"Darcy, too?" Steve says, his little head ducking in embarrassment. Everyone would've laughed if Darcy was actually here, but no one, not even Natasha, has an answer to Steve's question. Luckily, Tony is a master at making things up in the blink of an eye.

"Actually kiddo, it's just going to be you and Pep for the day. Darcy went home for a little bit, but she's coming back."

"Went… home?" Steve asks, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah, to see her family." Natasha plays along.

"But dis is her home. We her family." Steve says, slightly frowning. Natasha can't help but laugh, poking Steve in the belly yet again.

"Well, Steve, Darcy has a Momma herself. You know how I'm your Mommy." Steve nods his head. "Well Darcy has one. We all have a Mommy."

"That's right, Steve, so Darcy went to go see her own Mommy because she missed her." Pepper agrees, watching his facial expression. He looks like he's thinking too hard and it's adorable seeing his tiny face like that. After a moment he nods understandingly.

"You toming 'ack?" Steve asks Natasha, his large eyes practically pleading with her to, his grip on her wrist tightening.

Placing a kiss on his forehead Natasha answers sincerely, tapping Steve on the tip of his nose. "Of course I am." Steve lets out a cute, bubbly giggle that makes Natasha's heart swell with love.

"Otay, but Mommy," Steve says standing from his sitting position on the couch to be at eye level with her. He opens his arms wide, "Hug and tiss?" Steve requests with large innocent eyes.

Smiling at him, Natasha scoops Steve into her arms, giving the child a large big hug. While spinning around with him in her arms, Natasha plants dozens of kisses upon his face. "Be good for Pepper," Natasha instructs, handing Steve over to Pepper. Pepper grabs Steve and places the toddler on her lap as Natasha reaches down to blow a raspberry onto his pudgy cheek. Steve giggles and a reaches a hand out to playfully slap Natasha's own cheek in response, but Natasha moves before Steve could try. "And Mommy and uncles will be back soon. I promise." Moving away from the couch and to the elevator where the other Avengers wait patiently, Natasha blows a kiss to Steve. Steve reciprocates and waves sadly to the others. Minutes the later Steve sits alone in the common room with Pepper sitting underneath him.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"I gathered you here due to a message sent to SHIELD from an unknown source. We weren't able to trace them, but we're trying. They aren't leaving enough clues so we're going out on a limb here. Also with a new motivation to save Miss Lewis we're working around the clock to find these bastards." Fury informs, standing in front of the room with both Coulson and Maria standing beside him.

"What was the message?" Clint inquires.

Sighing, Fury pulls up a screen and enlarges it for everyone to see. "Keep in mind, we're doing our best to find the leak in our system, but so far we've found nothing and it seems we aren't doing it fast enough. This was sent in to SHIELD early this morning with no sending address." Tony opens his mouth to comment, but Fury holds up a hand. "Listen." He commands.

Second pass with only a static sound filling the room and the screen completely pitched black until... "Greetings, Avengers and SHIELD." A voice booms out of the speakers, the screen still completely dark. "I have sent this message in regards of your Captain, Steven Grant Rogers. This is a warning for you all. I would love to just have hands off. You give us the child and we won't hurt anyone. We'll take him and be on our merry way. Although, I hate to inform you but if you refuse, I'm afraid the consequences will be dire. And I'm sure that the Captain, if he were adult sized, would agree with me when I say that you wouldn't want anyone to get hurt or die. Especially someone close to both you and Captain Rogers." Everyone's eyes widen as soon as they realize who he's talking about.

It's only a minute later that the screen suddenly goes from pitch black to a fuzzy image of something that the Avengers can't make out. The screen goes from green to white to black for a moment before the fuzziness goes away leaving a very visible image on the screen for them. The Avengers can't help the sudden gasp that leaves their mouths as their eyes take in the sight before them.

Darcy.


	16. Chapter 16

Darcy's physical transformation shocks them, Thor most. She couldn't have been gone for more than 7 hours. The healthy, fun, crazy teenager they saw that morning was gone, leaving a nervous, shaking girl in her place tied up on a chair, duct tape covering her mouth. Her hair is down and conceals most of her face, but everyone can see a bruise peeking out, near her left eye. Her clothes are ripped in various places, slightly exposing her, and she has a wild look in her eyes. But the worst is how whenever Darcy moves a spark of pain crosses her face, revealing how damaged she is.

Natasha's mind reels, trying to make sense of it. 'I just saw her! Seven- no eight- I think it was five hours ago. How has she deteriorated so rapidly? What are they doing to her?' From Natasha's peripherals she can see Bruce, who sits next to her, start to shake his hands, clenching tightly into fists.

Reaching over, Natasha places a hand on top of Bruce's and at her touch he looks up, his eyes returning from slightly green to the regular brown. Natasha shakes her head, reassuringly squeezing his hands once before returning her hand back to her lap.

Darcy looked so broken, bruised and scared, something the Avengers were not used to seeing. She was happy, easy going, tough teen that no one would even think about messing with and it unsettled them all at the sight of her now. It was like Darcy was searching for something as she looked around the room, but was trying to hide was she was looking for by acting scared and nervous. And by the time her eyes make contact with the hidden camera in the room she's found it. Before she can do anything the voice is back on the screen, "Pretty girl, so much potential, and so much life still in her. I'm sure she's a good girl." The door to Darcy's cell and a guard walks in, gun in hand, aimed directly at Darcy's head. She stiffens, but doesn't cry out at the sight of the gun. She stays quiet and stares at the hole of the gun, her eyes widen and hands clutching the chair underneath her. "I'm going to shoot her in the head." Darcy's body starts shaking, tears streaming down her face as she shakes, trying to curl in on herself, but only able to duck her head down. "Live on your television for the entire world to see if Captain Rogers isn't given to us by Saturday at mid-night."

"5 days." Natasha mutters under her breath.

"Well goodbye, Avengers and I expect to see you in the next five days unless, of course…" The guard still holding the gun, presses the barrel into Darcy's temple, a smug smile on his face. 'That bastard' Natasha thinks to herself. "You want her blood all over your hands. Good day!" He says before everything goes blank.

No one says anything for a while; the only sound in the room is the rough breathing of the scientist sitting near the door, his body starting to shake. Everyone notices, but only Tony has the courage to say anything. He stands from his spot and walks over to place a hand on Bruce's shoulder. "Bruce, why don't you and I go for a walk?" He suggests and after a moment of silence Bruce nods slowly. Jumping up, he leaves the room in a hurry, Tony following.

Once Bruce and Tony are gone, the tension in the room seems to lessen. Fury, wise enough to not speak in front of the shaking doctor, clears his throat. "We assure you we're doing everything we can. Our science department is currently working on their location and once we get a hit we're sending our best agents. I want to know if that place looked familiar? That cell, something that might spark a memory."

The remaining three Avengers look around at each other, silently asking each other. After a minute or two, they simultaneously look at Fury, shaking their heads. He sighs, "Thought so." He runs a hand over his face before continuing, "The team I'm putting on this case has 10 of SHIELD's best agents, including Coulson. I'm assuming-"

"Put us in." Natasha instantly says, Clint and Thor nodding in agreement.

"We'll contact you once we have something. Get ready; we should have something by tomorrow evening. Inform Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner of this, we need every asset available." Fury says, turning around to face Coulson. "You'll join them as their handler, and if need arises, you'll fight beside them. Hill, you're to watch over Ms. Potts, Dr. Foster and Captain Rogers. No exception." Fury quickly adds as Maria open her mouth to protest. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly." Maria says emotionlessly.

"Your all dismissed." Fury says. Maria turns and strides out of the room with Clint, Thor and Natasha following.

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Steve ran up as soon as he heard the elevator door open, a large grin on his face. "Mommy, Mommy! Look what I draw! Look what I draw!" He says, thrusting a paper into Natasha's hands the minute she bends down to his level. "For you!"

"Aw, baby, it's beautiful. Thank you." Scooping Steve up in her arms, she and the others walk over to the couches where Pepper still sits on the ground, and Natasha's notices a smirk on the CEO's face. "What?" She asks her.

Pepper shakes her head, but the smirk doesn't go away. "How did it go?"She asks, and as soon as the words leave her mouth, it is as if all feeling of joy was sucked out of the room leaving a tense, black hole in its place. Pepper shifted uncomfortably.

No one speaks for a while, silently alerting Pepper of how serious the situation is. It's finally Natasha who speaks, "Steve, why don't you go play with Aunt Maria? Mommy will be there is a little bit." Maria looks taken back by the title Natasha and Steve had given her and it unsettles her a bit to being called 'Aunt Maria'. Looking over at her, Steve eyes her warily, unsure due to what happened the first time Steve meet her, but he shrugs and walks over to her. After that first time he'd warm up to the SHIELD agent, but was still cautious of her. Grabbing her hand, Steve starts tugging on her arm in the direction of his playroom. She resists at first, but once she starts seeing the child become upset she willingly goes with a heated glare sent Clint and Tony's way after hearing them snicker.

"How bad?" Pepper asks as soon as she hears Steve's door close behind the two.

"Awful." Bruce says through gritted teeth. "They're torturing her, and they threatened to kill her."

Pepper's eyes widen and she jumps up from her spot, her mind instantly going to one person.

"If they don't have Steve by Saturday at midnight, they're going to kill Darcy right in front of the entire world to see and blame it on us." Clint continues running a hand over his face. "Usually these kinds of threats are easy to deal with, but…"

"Darcy is a personal friend." Natasha continues. "So it makes it harder on all of us to watch her get killed or threatened. One of the many reasons SHIELD doesn't have friends or close acquaintances."

"So what's going to happen? How are we going to save her?" Pepper questions, starting to pace, biting her bottom lip.

"You are going to stay here with Jane and Steve and make sure no one gets into any trouble." Tony orders, his tone leaving no room for discussion."Keep Jane in check and Steve from wondering where we are, specifically Natasha. And we're going to in and kicking some asses to get our friend back. Fury trying to locate their location and once they get a hit we're all moving out immediately."

"But-" Pepper starts.

"No but," Natasha interrupts. "Tony's right, you're needed here with Steve. Distract him and you'll definitely need to keep a close eye on Jane. She is unstable and won't be able to fend for herself."

"And now I made it nearly impossible for an outside source to get into the Tower. If they even try to enter and if they aren't in the system, bye- bye." Tony says, waving his hand.

"You guys sound like you have it all planned out, but…" Pepper says, holding up a finger before anyone could interrupt her again. "How are you going to tell Steve and Jane about this? Keep in mind Steve already gets scared when you guys leave him for an hour. You might be gone for a day, two at the most."

"Don't bother." A voice says from the hallway gathering everyone's attention. A gasp escapes them at the sight of Jane standing there, practically leaning against the wall.

Thor strides over to her side, a hand coming to support her when she stands, but she holds a hand out to him. "Jane…" He starts, but she pushes away from the wall and walks straight up to Natasha.

"Where is my friend?" Jane demands, a hard look in her eyes.

"We don't know, we're tracking their location at the moment." Natasha replies calmly, unfazed by her harshness. "We're getting her back. Alive." She assures, which makes Jane relax. Placing a hand on her shoulder, Natasha guides her back to Thor where he enfolds her in his arms. "I promise. Now you have to promise that you will help Pepper keep Steve from acting out and throwing a temper tantrum. She'll need your help because I assure you his behavior will be horrible after I tell him we're leaving." Natasha smiles at the quick nod Jane offers her and the soft 'I promise' she whispers under her breath. "Good."

"But Nat," Clint starts, "Pepper's right. How are you going to tell Steve? What's our story?"

Natasha answers honestly, shrugging. "I don't know. But we'll hit that bridge when we get there." Turning, Natasha walks briskly out of the room, her hand still gripping the drawing Steve had given her.

Entering his bedroom, Natasha's eyes instantly go to the SHIELD agent and toddler sitting in the middle of adult Steve's bed, their eyes on the TV screen, which was playing Frozen. She stands in the doorway for a little, watching how Steve looked so comfortable in the agent's lap, with his head leaning against her chest as Maria looked very calm holding him close as opposed to weeks ago when she barely even wanted to touch him. Natasha doesn't know how long she stands there, but she gets an idea how long when she notices "Let It Go" start playing on the TV. Moving from her spot, she clears her throat, gathering Maria's and Steve's attention. Steve smiles at her, climbing out of Maria's lap and crawling towards Natasha's form by the edge of the bed. "You can go start unpacking, Hill. Stark will show you your room." Nodding, Maria stands from the bed and Steve shyly waves at her. She politely waves back before departing from the room.

"Mommy?" Steve asks after the door is closed from behind them.

"Yes baby?"

"Does Aunt Maria ever… smile?" He asks after a moment of hesitation. His comment makes Natasha break out in laughter. Sitting down on the bed, Natasha brings him closer to her chest, her body shaking with laughter.

"Oh Steve…" she says after she gets her laughing under control. "Why do you ask?"

"'Cause she never smiles at me. Or you, or Booce or anyone. She look mean and scary all da time."

Natasha refrains from laughing again, but she smiles largely. "Yes, Steve, she does smile, but not a lot."

"Why?" Steve asks, confused.

Natasha shrugs, "I don't know, you'll have to ask her that yourself." She says, imagining Maria's face when Steve walks up to her and asks her why she doesn't smile. It's an intriguing picture.

Speaking of reactions, Natasha's mind goes back to when she first saw Pepper. Before they had that entire conversation out in the common room. When Steve was seated in her lap was happily staring down at the drawing in her hand, Pepper had sent her a knowing smirk in her direction. 'What was that about?' Looking down at the paper, from what Natasha could make out, there were three people standing side by side holding hands in the very front, a sun in the very corner and, if you squint, Avenger Tower in the background. Natasha could tell who two of the three figures in the picture were, but couldn't make out the third person. "Steve, who is this?" She asks, pointing to the brown haired stick figure standing next to the red headed and the blonde. Looking over at the paper, Steve blushes shyly before ducking his head and laying it against her chest.

"Um…" he starts. "Dat's um…" Steve raises his hand to put his thumb in his mouth. He'd do that whenever he was in trouble, scared, nervous or when he goes to bed.

Natasha lightly smacks his hand away from his mouth. "Steve, it's okay, just tell me." She says, now fully interested in what he had to say.

Biting his bottom lip, he glances down at the paper before looking Natasha in the eye. "Dat's my… daddy."

Natasha's head shot up at that. "What?" She asks.

"Dat's my daddy." Steve repeats more confidently as he watches Natasha's reaction carefully.

"… You mean your real daddy?" Natasha asks after a while.

Steve shakes his head. "No, my other daddy."

Now Natasha is genuinely confused. "Sweetie, what other daddy?" Steve remains quiet, looking down at his hands as he plays with them. Natasha continues watching until it hits her. "Steve, you want to have a daddy?"

He nods slowly, "Just like you're my new Mommy, I wan a new daddy. One dat I play wif and dat will holded me and wub me."

"You want a daddy that will give you a better childhood." Natasha states bluntly, trying to hide how hurt she feels by hearing this. But Steve's next reply is what kills her,

"Yeah... Mommy, can I have a daddy?"

Natasha can't help the small pang of sadness and hurt that stabbed her heart quickly. 'Am I doing something wrong? Am I not enough for him? Did I fail him to the point where he needs another parent to replace me?' To cover up her wall of hurt, Natasha nods clearing her throat. "Um.. yeah, of course, Steve. Whatever you want is… fine with me."

Standing up, Steve gives her a bear hug, making all her thoughts disappear. "Tank you, Mama."

Natasha hugs him back, kissing his forehead before pulling him away and placing him on the bed. "So… do you know who you want to be your daddy?" She asks, not knowing who he wanted. It shocks Natasha when Steve immediately nods his head after her question. He already knew who he wanted.

"Who?"

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Natasha awoke earlier than usual the next morning although she wasn't surprised.. She always does. Looking over at the toddler in her crib that was still sleeping peacefully, she slips out of the bed and the room before he could wake up and notice. Looking around the empty hallway, Natasha sighs and runs a hand through her messy red curls. 'I need air.' She instantly thinks her feet moving in the direction of the stairway leading to the rooftop of Stark Tower. She walks up them and goes to the edge of the roof watching as the sun rise. She never usually did this, but… it seemed to fit the situation she was currently in. The dawn of a new day, and the dawn of a new chapter in Steve's life.

He'd already picked his father out and told Natasha, but today was the day that he would announce to said person. She kind of expected it when he told her who he'd chosen. To say that she wasn't surprised was an understatement.

Steve previously had asked her to break the news, but she convinced him to do with her so that said person wouldn't freak out, which is the first reaction she expected out of him. She prayed that he wouldn't freak out as much with the toddler's eyes on him. She didn't mean to wake up early, but she did and saw no reason to wake Steve up at the moment, knowing that he wouldn't be awake. It's past 26 past 5, no one is awake at the moment and waking Steve up now would be pointless considering he'd be grouchy for the rest of the day. So she opts to staying on the rooftop for a few more hours basking in the cool air and the loud, busy New York sounds that usually come with morning. Cars honking, people shouting, same old, same old.

It's after three hours or so that she decides to go down and wake Steve. Better to get it done sooner rather than later.

Walking into Steve's room, Natasha shakes his shoulder, whispering quietly to him. "Steve… Steve baby, time to get up." After much shaking and encouragement Steve finally has the energy to sit up. He rubs the sleepiness of out of eyes and tries to get his vision back together. His gaze fixes on Natasha by the time the blurriness is over and he automatically reaches his arms out to her. She scoops him up her in her arms and offers him a smile. "You ready, Steve?"

"Fo' what?" Steve says sleepily as he rests his head on Natasha's shoulder. Shaking her head, Natasha can't help but laugh as she leaves the room.

After Steve eats breakfast he finally remembers what he and Natasha were supposed to do today and he can't help but get very nervous. His thumb never leaves his mouth even if Natasha bribes him to take it out. He's too nervous. 'Well, it won't be in there for much longer,' Natasha thinks as she makes her way to the elevator, Steve toddling after her holding her hand tightly. Both make their way down to lower floors of the tower, Natasha starting to feel a little nervous herself, but she pushes it down standing up straight with her head held high. Soon Natasha finds herself standing outside Tony and Bruce's laboratory, peering into the glass window trying to find one of the said scientists. Upon finding nothing, Natasha sighs and enters the code Tony had given her. They're a small hiss, frightening Steve and alerting Natasha that the door has been unlocked. Steve gets her attention by tugging on her arm sleeve and whimpering slightly, his arms extending upward towards her.

"Uppy?" Steve mumbles, his thumb leaving his mouth for a moment, only for him to put it back in. Grabbing him under his armpits, Natasha hoists him up on her hip, entering the lab.

"Tony?" She calls. "Bruce? You here?" Walking further into the lab she finds nothing. She's about to ask JARVIS of the scientist's locations when there's a loud thump on her left and a very colorful curse following after it. "Tony?" She says, turning to her left and finding said inventor rubbing his forehead as he slides out from under the car he was previously working on.

"Damn it, that hurt." Standing from his spot, Tony uses a handkerchief to wipe off the grease on his hand and forehead before making his way to his work table. "What's up, Red? What brings you down here to the land of science?"

"You mean the land of nerds." Natasha comments, a smile tugging on the corner of her lips. She raises her hands up in defense when Tony sends a heated glare her way. "Anyway, I wondering if you could tell me where Bruce is?"

"Banner? He's-"

"Right here." Bruce's voice says from behind them, efficiently cutting off Tony. Turning around, Natasha finds the scientist barely entering the lab doors, two mugs of coffee in his hands. Tony, walks over and retrieves his cup and immediately takes two large sips. "Careful it's hot." Bruce warns. Tony mocks Bruce before going back to his worktable. Shaking his head, Bruce turns his attention back to Natasha. Steve instantly reaches out towards the scientist as soon as he gets his attention. He mumbles a soft 'Uppy?' towards the scientist to which Bruce replies by putting down his coffee and taking Steve into his arms. Placing him on his hip, he bounces the small child for a moment before returning his gaze to the red head women. "What can I do for you, Nat?" He asks nonchalantly.

"I wondering if we could talk. The three of us, Steve has something he wants to ask you." Natasha starts looking over at the two year old, Bruce doing the same.

"What is it, Steve?" He asks. Steve opens his mouth to ask, but then his attention is caught by the inventor standing on the other side of the room listening in on their conversation as he continues his work, his eyes never leaving what he's doing. Tugging on Bruce's sleeve, Steve points Tony out and Bruce gets in the message. "Come on, let's go to my floor." He turns and walks out of the lab, Natasha following closely behind as she eyes the inventor who pouted a little upon hearing that they were leaving, but said no comment or look up as the door closed.

A quick ride up in the elevator, Bruce, Natasha and Steve are deposited on Bruce's floor. Natasha can't help but stare. It had a calming aura around it; it was simple and gave off an alarming sense of home. The walls were painted a bright tamari, nothing extravagant in the living room, but just two couches and a flat screen TV. (The only things Bruce allowed Tony to put.) And to top it off, the whole place smelled like honey and Bruce's shampoo.

"Nice," Natasha can't help but comment.

"Thanks." Bruce says, placing Steve down onto the ground and watching as the child crawls towards the couch where a few of his toys laid from his last time he played here. He motions for Natasha to have a seat, "Would you like something to drink? Eat?"

"No, I'm good, thank you." Natasha replies.

"Steve, are you thirsty?" Bruce says, looking over at the toddler who looks up.

"Yes, Booce!" He says excitedly. "Juice!"

Natasha gives Steve a look, "Steve, what do you say? Juice…" She encourages.

"Juice please!" He finishes.

"Sure buddy," Bruce walks into the kitchen and Natasha decides to follow him, to give him a heads- up of what Steve was going to tell him.

"Hey, Bruce," Bruce hums in reply. "I wanted to talk to you about Steve."

Immediately, a list of medical issues flashed through his mind. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no. He's fine, he's healthy." Bruce lets out a relieved sigh as he continues to pour Steve's juice into one of his sippy cups. "This is something else." Bruce motions for Natasha to take a seat at the table and raises an eyebrow, prompting her to go on and elaborate. "Steve has made a very important decision in regards of his childhood. A very important decision."

"What?" Bruce asks softly.

"He decided that he wants a father." She watches Bruce's expression carefully, watching his every movement. He nodded his head understandably, turning around to face her and motioning for her to go on. "And… he wants it to be someone on the team."

"He wanted to choose someone he knew and was comfortable with, that's understandable." Bruce nodded. Walking over, he takes a seat across from the redhead. "So who'd he pick?" Bruce asks, clearly oblivious to what she's saying. "Tony? Thor? Clint?" he says, leaving his name out for obvious reasons.

"Actually, why don't you let him tell you?" Natasha says, standing and going to retrieve the playing toddler. When she walks back in, Steve on her hip, she places Steve in her previous seat opting to stay standing in case Bruce did freak out. "Tell Bruce who you picked to be your daddy, Steve." Natasha prompts, eyes never leaving Bruce's face. Bruce looks down at the small child waiting for an answer, hoping it's not who he thinks it is. Praying with all his might that he'd picked someone else, rather than…

"You." Steve states quietly, looking up at the scientist through his eyelashes.

Natasha waits with baited breath as she watches many conflicting emotions pass Bruce's face. He stays silent, but his breathing starts to become rapid and fast, his hands clenching and unclenching. Steve starts getting worried at the lack of response Bruce is showing. Jumping down from his chair, he toddles over to him, and Natasha tries to bring him back. He ignores her and once he's standing next to Bruce, he tugs on his pant leg trying to get Bruce to pick him up. When nothing happens, and Bruce's breathing continues to get heavy Steve opts to climbing onto his lap himself.

Natasha, seeing a tint of green in Bruce's eyes, starts to freak out. "No, Steve." She says, easily scooping Steve up and backing away from the scientist.

"Booce!" Steve says worriedly when Natasha takes him to the other side of the room, placing him on the kitchen island so he doesn't move.

"Don't move." She orders him, walking back over to Bruce and attempting to calm the stressed doctor down. "Bruce, it's me. Natasha. Can you hear me?" No answer… "Bruce, you need to get your act together. Calm down, don't let the other guy get out now." She lowers her voice, leaning in as close as she allows herself to get. "Steve is here, you don't want to hurt him right? You don't want him to see you like… that, right?" No response, but Bruce's shaking does calm down. It's only when Steve calls out to him that Bruce actually does freak out.

"Daddy…" Steve says to Bruce and instantly, Bruce lashes out. His fist connects with Natasha's cheek and she falls to the ground, holding it in her right hand. It may not look like it, but Bruce packs a powerful punch even in his human form. "Mommy!" Steve cries worriedly, wanting to run to her, but too scared to jump down from the island. Tears spring in his eyes immediately. "Mommy!" He screams again, but it's drowned out by the crashing and breaking of others objects around Bruce as he tries to fight it, but can't seem too.

But there is a moment, a moment between his transformation where he's brought back into reality. In those few seconds, he looks down at Natasha and many mixed emotions cross his features, but as soon as Natasha's hand leaves her cheek, his eyes widen in horror.

"Natasha…" he whispers before he's brought back down to the ground, his clothing starting to rip away to welcome the oncoming enlarged green muscles to come.

"Bruce," Natasha grunts, going to a sitting position, ignoring the pain it brings her. "You got it fight. You're going to be okay, I promise." Steve makes a whimpering sound from the across the room catching Natasha's attention. She puts a finger up to her finger indicting Steve to stay quiet before continuing. "We're going to be okay. You're not going to do anything. I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away and never have to-"

"Your life!" He growls, his voice going deep. And Steve instantly lets out a loud cry at the sound of Bruce's voice alerting Bruce of his presence. Natasha, watching Bruce's face, sees something flicker across his face at the sound of Steve's crying. Recognition and realization. "Steve." He whispers. Something in Bruce possesses him to stand from his spot, his uncontrollably shaking body making it difficult for him to even do just that. His eyes glance at the sobbing child on the island for a moment before he turns and runs. Out of the kitchen and into the hallway heading for a room he only goes into for an emergency.

"Bruce." Natasha calls after him after she forces herself to stand and look through the kitchen doorway. The last thing she sees in a large, green foot run into a vacant room before the door slams.


	17. Chapter 17

"Ssh, ssh, ssh, it's alright. Mama's here, Mama's here. You're alright." Natasha rocks around the vicinity of her room trying to calm down a hysterical baby. Steve hasn't stopped crying since the little incident in Bruce's room and Natasha hasn't seen Bruce since. She wanted to go and see if he was alright, but knew it wouldn't be wise to be in his presence right now. She'll give it some time, but she can't help but feel guilty that she caused him to Hulk out. He's been more than two years without an incident- not counting the Loki battle - and she was the one that caused him to freak out and transform. Well, not her technically, but she would never put the burden on Steve's shoulders. He just wanted a father, someone that will love him just as much as his mother did. He never knew this could happen so Natasha would never blame Steve for this, and if Bruce were human, she knows he wouldn't either. It was a misfortunate accident. Natasha's just scared that, after what Steve saw, he won't want to be near Bruce anymore. It would break Bruce's heart to know that he scared Steve and he would self-guilt himself til the day Steve gets turned back into an adult, and probably after.

Not only when he sees Steve avoiding him, but when he takes a good look at Natasha's cheek where a very huge, large bruise lays. Make- up wouldn't put a dent in it, so she's stuck with it until it heals.

Steve, fortunately, came out unharmed. Bruce, even as the Hulk, would never lay a hand on the child. He knows the difference between bad and evil, even when out of control, so Steve would've been safe anyway. The only thing wrong with Steve is that he got scared. To the point where he won't let go of Natasha.

Clint, Thor, Jane, Pepper and Tony came up as soon as they heard Bruce's roar, but were too late. By the time they got there Bruce had locked himself in the room. They saw the bruise on Natasha's face and Clint insisted she get it checked out, but she brushed away their concerns and walked past them with Steve sobbing onto her shoulder. She hasn't seen them since she got back to her floor.

Natasha's tried everything and after almost being knocked out and going into a fight with the Hulk, she's exhausted. And it's only noon! She's very tempted to just give Steve off someone else, possibly Pepper, and take a nap, but she forces herself to stay and calm him down. It'd be useless anyway: he won't let go of her.

Walking into her room, Natasha lays Steve down before lying down beside him. He turns onto his side, facing her, and presses his face into her chest muffling his tiny sobs. Natasha's hand instinctively starts rubbing his back, holding him closer as tries, once more, to calm him down.

Not liking the feeling of no arms around him, Steve sits up from his spot and climbs onto Natasha's body, lying on her chest. Allowing him, Natasha wraps her arm around him, kissing his tiny forehead. "Hey, it's okay. Your okay, don't need to cry." It's a while before the crying slowly subsides, but doesn't entirely disappear. There's an occasional whimper, and sniffle coming from the silent child, but nothing else. Natasha doesn't know how many hours pass, but soon Steve's breathing pattern informs Natasha that he'd fallen into a deep sleep. Sighing, Natasha closes her eyes for a moment before taking Steve off her chest and onto the bed. She tucks him, kisses his forehead softly before getting off the bed and leaving the room. Closing the door she tells JARVIS, "JARVIS, please ask Dr. Foster or Miss Potts if they could meet me on my floor now."

"Yes, Agent Romanoff. The others as well?"

"No just them… oh and, how's Bruce doing?" Natasha adds as an afterthought.

"Not well, he's back to his human form, but he's not coping well with it. Shall I inform him you're coming?"

"No."

"Very well, Dr. Foster is on her way up." JARVIS informs her.

"Thank you."

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After leaving Steve with Jane, Natasha immediately goes to Bruce's floor once more in hopes of finding the scientist. Luckily she didn't have to look around his floor because he was right there in the middle of the living room, half naked, nurturing a beer. Walking further into the room, Bruce not even noticing as he hangs his head, his eyes shut.

Watching his crumpled body at the moment makes her rethink her decision to speak with him. 'I could talk to him tomorrow' she reasons with herself. But she walks up to the couch.

When Natasha's feet enter his view, Bruce looks up and jumps up, backing away from her an arm outstretched in front of him. "Don't come closer." He warns, the hand holding his bottle starting to shake.

Sighing, Natasha takes a step towards him only to have him take another step back, so she opts to staying where she was. "Bruce, you're not going to hurt-"

"Don't…. don't say I'm not going to hurt you because I already have." Bruce says, pointing to Natasha's cheek.

"It was an accident." Natasha offers calmly.

"I could've killed you… or Steve." Bruce says, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.

"But you didn't. We're still here and no one was harmed." Bruce opens his mouth to protest, but Natasha cuts him off before he can say anything. "_No one_ was harmed!" she says. Taking three swift steps towards Bruce before he can move, she grasps his wrist in a tight vice grip so he doesn't go anywhere and is forced to look into her eyes. "Listen to me carefully," she orders tugging on Bruce's arm and making him down on the couch. He follows, knowing it's not wise to fight Natasha. Taking a seat beside him, she changes her hold on his wrist and instead takes to holding his hands in hers. She has to force Bruce to look at her rather than the ground before she continues speaking, "You didn't hurt anyone, especially not me. It was my fault because I knew you were changing and I got in the way anyway. Also, I should've been more thoughtful when Steve told me he wanted you as a father. I knew you were going to freak out, so I probably shouldn't have brought him with me and I could've just told you myself. But I didn't and what happened happened so you can't blame yourself. I don't blame you and, when he wakes up, Steve won't either. Granted, he'll be scared, but he'll warm up to you, so stop wallowing in self- guilt and suck it up." Bruce, whom was staring Natasha directly in the face, subconsciously, reaches a hand up and touches the large bruise on Natasha's cheek. Instinctively, she flinches from the slight pain it brought, but composes herself. But he sees. He pulls his hand away and looks down at them, shoulders slump, defeated.

"I'm so sorry, Natasha."

"What did I say!?" Natasha says, exasperated. "It's not your fault."

"It is my fault. I lost control. I hurt you and I could've hurt Steve. Hell, I could've killed you guys! Over a request. A small, little request. Steve wanted me to be his dad and I freaked out… I don't know, I guess I just got scared. I thought that if I was his dad I'd mess him up or possible hurt him. The thought of me hurting him is what made me lost control. I don't know if I can be his father and I doubt he'll want me to be it anymore after what he saw. He's never seen the Hulk and I know I scared the shit out of him."

"But he'll forgive you, that's just his personality. He loves you, Bruce, and I'm sure he wants you to be his father, just give it time." Natasha assures the distressed doctor.

"I don't think I want him to forgive me." Bruce states softly.

Natasha sighs sadly, "Bruce-"

"No, I don't!" He exclaims, standing. "I-I don't want him to love me. I could hurt him, or worse, I could kill him. I don't even want him to care about me. Of course I'll always care about him because he's my teammate, but I don't want him to feel the same way about me. I want him to hate me because he should hate me."

"Don't say that-" Natasha starts again, but gets irritated when Bruce interrupts her again.

"It's true!" Bruce opens his mouth to go into a full on rant and Natasha sees it coming. So to stop it she jumps up from her spot, grabs Bruce by the shoulder and slams her lips into his again for the second time that week. And once again, Bruce's breath hitches in his throat, but instead of freezing completely like he did last time he welcomes the feeling. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulls Natasha against him, kissing back with as much passion as he can muster. Natasha's hand comes up to press against Bruce's bare chest as her other runs through Bruce's brown curly locks.

Without thinking, Natasha jumps up and wraps her legs around his waist, deepening the kiss as Bruce starts leading them away. The bedroom door closes behind them and soon the only sounds in Bruce's apartment are sounds of pleasure and longing.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Nat," Bruce whispers, rolling over, his arm encircling her waist as he pulls her closer. She hums in reply, resting her head on his chest listening to his heart. "You're so beautiful." Caressing her cheek softly, Natasha captures Bruce's wrist in her hand and places tiny kisses on each knuckle.

Chuckling slightly, Natasha turns around to face the man before her and she shakes her head, running a hand through her hair. Instead of replying to his statement, she rolls over on top of Bruce, pressing her lips softly against his. He reciprocates, pressing Natasha tightly against him, his eyes closing. Before they can continue things, Natasha presses a hand on Bruce's chest pushing him away as she takes in much needed breath. Pressing their foreheads together, Bruce basks in the moment they're having. With Natasha in his arms he thinks nothing could change how happy he felt right now. Until they got a call from Fury.

… They found the location. They're going to get Darcy back.

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Natasha and Bruce are the last ones to enter the common room where the rest of the Avengers sit, armor and weapons ready. Pepper, Jane and Steve sit in the corner- Steve sleeping peacefully in the astrophysicist arms. Both scientist and spy act civil around each other as if nothing happened between them. Of course there are always the wandering gazes at each other or the distracting thoughts once in a while, but nothing too major to make them feel awkward around each other. Surprisingly they both were very happy about what transpired in Bruce's room only hours ago, especially Natasha.

"Finally, Red and Brucie have decided to grace us with their presence." And of course, Tony was the one to break the silence that had fallen upon the room at their arrival. "What were you two doing? Making out or something?"

Natasha wanted to open her mouth and tell them exactly what she and Bruce had been doing, but she had a feeling Bruce wouldn't appreciate Natasha spill out their- mostly his- privacy with everyone. So rolls her eyes and looks over Clint, the only person she believed wouldn't mess with her at a moment like this. "Where are we going?"

"Germany." He replies stiffly, his eyes glancing back at the sleeping Steve in Jane's arms, a worried look in his eyes.

"Why Germany?"

Clint sighs and stands from his spot walking closer to Bruce and Natasha, lowering his voice as he does so. "We found out about the organization that wants Steve." Natasha and Bruce stay silent, their silence prompting Clint to continue. But the words that come out of his mouth makes Natasha's breath hitch in her throat in shock.

"Hydra."

_No._


	18. Chapter 18

**I apologizes for uploading this chapter twice. I didn't realize that Fan fiction had cut the ending of this chapter off until I went on a couple hours later. So sorry, but this is the full chapter of chapter 18. Enjoy!**

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Darcy could feel throbbing at the back of her head. The cold cement acts as a relief to her horrible migraine. At the moment all she wants to do is close her eyes and sleep, but she fears that if she does, she won't wake up. With the loss of so much blood, growing hunger, and the concussion and lacerations from the torture session, Darcy is getting too weak. If she isn't saved soon, she'll die.

Taking a deep breath, she braces her arms on the floor and, with all her might, slowly pushes herself to a sitting position, opting to keep her eyes closed. The feeling of chains rattling against the burns on her wrist emits a wince from the brunette.

Dropping her head back on the wall behind her, Darcy closes her eyes and tries to surpass the pain on her newly burnt wrist. She takes a couple of deep breathes before opening her eyes and looking around the dimly lit room. The room had absolutely no windows and was all concrete. The room she was currently in was cold, but not enough to induce shivers.

Her eyes tiredly look down to find shackles and chains on her wrists and ankles, barely four feet away from the wall. She rolls her eyes and groans, getting into a more comfortable position.

When she jolts an injury on her side, she can't help the cry that escapes. Tears spring to her eyes and she leans forward, trying to curl in on herself. But the chains reject the movement and she only ends up hurting herself more.

It was as if her scream was a call to them to come in because the door suddenly burst open. Darcy held in a scream and her body visibly tenses, as she curls her hands into fists. Stuffing them beneath her legs, Darcy braces herself, her eyes watching the first figure enter the room. Others follow after him closely, some holding guns, one holding a chair and others holding knives, guns, and a rope. All the guns are pointed at her. Darcy isn't fazed.

The first guy, a tall man with no hair and bulging muscles, walks forward to her and towers over her. Darcy keeps her eyes on the floor, refusing to look up and holding her body impossible still.

The guy offers her a smile, reaching down and caressing her cheek. "Good day, Ms. Lewis. It's wonderful to see you awake." Darcy immediately recognized the thick German accent he spoke with. This is the leader of her torture, the goon responsible for hurting her. This is her murderer.

She takes a deep breath and yanks her face away from the man's long, dirty fingers and drops her head down even further. "Now, Ms. Lewis, don't be so rude. You know the consequences of being hostile." Darcy stays silent, glaring at the floor beneath her. '_Hostile my ass. You're the one torturing me,'_she wanted to spit in his face. But she does the smart thing and stays silent, only raising her head to glare up at the guy. "Very well."

Suddenly two men run up to her and unshackle her. She smirks once she hears the chain unclick. She goes into action immediately.

From her spot, she jumps up and goes for the leader first. She manages a few punches to his face, a pinch in the under part of his arm and a kick to the groin before she's restrained, but not without letting the others have a few whacks.

She gets out of the first restrain as she throws her head back, hitting the guy holding her, and bends his arm before elbowing him in the stomach hard. The guy falls back in pain and Darcy runs forward. She's able to grab a handful of hair with both hands. Expertly, she flips the two guards who are currently in her capture and slams them on the ground. Before anyone can stop her she begins kicking and punching anyone around her.

"Get her!" The leader shouts, as he tries to stop flow of blood coming from his nose. Everyone descends on her at once and it takes five guards and three guns held to her head. Darcy breathes heavily, very happy with her work as she watches the leader bend over in pain, his hand covering his groin. Despite her situation, a giddy laugh escapes her.

The leader looks up from his bent over position and he shares a look with the guards holding her. With a quick nod, Darcy's arms are pulled behind her back and she gasps in agony as it jostles one of her injured shoulders. They push her to the chair and grab both shoulders, an agonized scream following closely. A knife is immediately held to her neck to keep her still as she's tied down. She's forced to recede and allow them to tie her down without struggle. Not seconds after being tied down Darcy's thigh is met with the previous knife that was by her neck. The leader smirks down at her when she screams, her body shaking with the sudden pain the knife causes. Four men restrain her as the leader shoves the knife deeper in her thigh, not caring if Darcy's blood gets splattered onto his face.

Darcy leans forwards; her shaking hands hover over the knife, wanting to pull it out, but in too much pain. She sniffles, the tears being held back slowly starting to escape as her façade falls. Her fingers touch the sides of her thigh, covering them in her blood as it flows steadily down her thigh in an endless river. Raising her head to look at them, Darcy tightens her jaw, glaring up at the leader. She grits her teeth and shouts, "You sick fuck! Go screw yourself, you bastard!"

The leader smirks down at her before pulling out the knife slowly and watching, with an amuse smile, the agony on Darcy's face. Darcy doesn't react when the pain worked its way up her leg. And she especially doesn't react when she feels something hot near her shoulder. But when she turns her head, and she faces the butt of a lit cigarette nearing the flesh on her skin she loses it. Her eyes widen and she starts struggling against the rope and the people holding her. "NO! No, please, NO!" Is all she can get out before the butt touches her and she screams out when her flesh begins smoldering. She cries out for someone to help her, but everyone continues to just stare at her with amused expressions as tears start to run down her face. "Please," she whispers helplessly. "Please, stop." They don't. They continue laughing and enjoying her distress. She continues to struggles for minutes on end, with the cigarette still burning her. It isn't until she can't almost feel her shoulder anymore the cigarette is removed.

"Don't move." One of the guards orders. "Don't move or you'll get shot, you understand?" It takes a while and a couple of slaps before Darcy wearily nods. "Good, untie her." They untie her and two guards lay her limp body on the ground, belly up.

The leader continues to stare on, looking actually bored at the lack of torture. Darcy whimpers and her hands reach out to grab anything in sight, but only ends up having to grab her shoulder. The contact of skin on her newly burnt mark on her shoulder makes her shriek and her body start to seize. "Hold her." The leader orders. "Do it."

The next hour is pure torture for Darcy as she lays there and watches, helplessly and weak, as her torturers use the tip of the knife and carves something into her exposed stomach. She struggles and cries and screams out at them, but they don't seem to notice or they choose to ignore her. Any attempt to escape their grasp only ends up as pain for Darcy when the tip of the knife just carves deeper into her skin. When she opens her mouth to scream at them to stop for the fifth time something covers her face and mouth. They stuff a couple of rags down her mouth making gag pitifully and place a paper bag over her face. She chokes for the remainder of the time.

By the time they are done, Darcy's almost unconscious. She can't feel anything anymore, but she can tell they are still cutting.

Tears stream down her face and if the rags were cutting off her speech, she would've let out her first sob since being there. The rags from her mouth are removed, but the paper bag is kept in place. To replace the rags, a knife to brought to her neck. The tip of the knife pierces skin on her neck slightly, but doesn't move from its spot. As soon as she is able to speak, she does. Her voice comes out as a whimper, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, please don't." She gulps, a hand coming to wipe the tears off her face, covering her face in her own blood. Then when she realizes how dry her throat is, her hands wrap around her neck helplessly. She gasps and gulps, trying desperately to speak. "I won't… d-do it again. I-I'm sorry." She has a strong urge to touch her stomach, see what they did to her, but she knows that would only end horribly for her. She stays still.

The leader smiles, "You better not." He removes the knife and Darcy sighs in relief, keeping her eyes closed and remaining silent. The bag conceals whatever or whoever was in front of her, but she senses someone standing directly right in front of her. And her suspicion is correct when she feels someone's nasty breath on her face. She almost chokes on how horrible it smelled, but she holds it in. "Aw, my sweet Darcy, don't cry. As long as you do everything we tell you, everything will turn out alright." Darcy continues to cry as the leader's hand reaches under the bag and caresses her cheek. Her body stiffens slightly when his lips touch the bag, where her forehead is under the bag. "Everything will be alright. When this is over we'll have what we want and you'll be able to go home… that is, if you are still alive after this." He laughs evilly and motions for everyone to follow him out. "Bring her."

Darcy feels herself being lifted and thrown over the shoulder of someone, but she's too numb to care about anything anymore. The last thing she sees before the world turns dark is a river of her own blood hit the floor.

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

"Romanoff and Barton, you get the rooftop. I'll fly you up before the battle and Natasha will sneak in from the top. She'll try to locate Darcy in the building and if anyone gets a hit on Lewis, report to Romanoff immediately. Barton, you're to keep the rooftop secure, no one goes in the building and no one comes out. If anyone tries to get in, you've got the arrows. Hit 'em where it hurts. And if Natasha needs any assistance, you'll assist her. Thor will take your place on the roof if the need arises." Tony informs, looking at the two agents beside him, but also addressing Thor as well. The archer smirks gleefully as he polishes off the tip of his arrows while the Natasha retains a neutral expression. Tony catchs a hint of eagerness in her eyes. Thor merely nods.

Tony turns to the people standing on the other side him, "Thor, Banner, Coulson and I will take the front. We'll go straight through and create the distraction in order for Natasha to get inside the building." Thor grips the handle of his harmer tighter and the fury in his eyes can't be mistaken. "Sorry Bruce, but we're going to need the big guy's help."

Bruce waves Tony's apology off. "If it's going to save her I'll do it."

Tony nods and turns to the rest, "Carter, Osborn, Stoner, Dugan, Streszews, Sitwell and Bridge, you'll take the sides. When we attack to the front they will send only few of their soldiers out. The rest will be waiting either near the back, near the battle in case more soldiers are needed or around where they keep Darcy. That's how Hydra is. Your job to take out any who might be in Romanoff's way when she enters from the rooftop. Are we clear?"

Everyone nods.

"Good." The pilot announces that they are about to descend. Tony smirks. "Suit up, it's time."

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

Iron Man flies up to the top of the building they're infiltrating, his arms around the waist of two of his teammates. Black Widow and Hawkeye are deposited as quickly and quietly as possible.

Natasha looks up at the Iron Man suit, nodding her thanks and it's all Tony has time for before he flies off the roof and towards the front of the building. The two partners look at each other, and soon they are standing in their fighting positions. They keep a look out for anyone that might come as they make their way towards the roof's exit/ entrance.

When they get to the door, Natasha kneels down- taking her eyes off the scenery around her, trusting her partner- and checks to see if it was open. Unfortunately, it wasn't. There was a lock on the door. She curses under her breath.

Natasha looks up at Clint and whispers quietly, "It's not open," her eyes sweep the environment around them.

Clint glances down for a moment assessing the situation. He keeps his bow armed even as he bends down beside her and gives it a good tug. It wouldn't move. "If we do anything to disrupt the lock, it will set off an alarm."

"Not if we detach a few wires and set off the main alarm system, but that would require Stark or Banner." Natasha says, already using a hair pin to pull off the top of the lock with difficulty, but she gets it off.

"What do we do?" Clint asks.

Natasha reaches a hand up and touches her communicator. She speaks into it, "Stark, there's a lock. Not a manual one. This will definitely set off an alarm if disturbed. We need to disarm it."

There a static sound in respond and for a few minutes nothing. Then Tony's voice says through his comm. "I'm flying Banner up. He'll unlock it and come into the fight when he's done."

And sure enough when Tony's finished speaking, there is the Iron Man suit flying next to the top of the building, his arms around Bruce's waist. Bruce looks a little sick as he keeps a vice tight grip on Tony's metal arm, but he seems relived when he sees Natasha and Clint. Tony places Bruce's on his feet and only offers the assassins a small salute before flying away. Bruce stumbles for a bit before gaining his balance. Taking a deep breath he walks over to where Natasha and Clint kneel. "Why kind of lock is it?" He asks and as Clint stands up, he kneels beside Natasha.

"It's a palm sensor scan. Same as the one Stark programmed at the Tower for Steve's room." Natasha answers.

Bruce sighs in relief, a smile on his face. "Good, it won't take too long then. I helped Stark design it. It should take less than a minute." Bruce says reaching out and taking a wire into his hands. "Can I see something sharp?" Hawkeye willingly passes over an arrow and Bruce uses it to cut the wire in halfway. He does it to a few more wires and once that's done, he places the top back on and types a code in. It takes a minute before the lock beeps in response. "There, you're in."

Bruce leans down and grabs the door handle opening it. "Thanks," Natasha says immediately sliding her body down into the door. Bruce nods at her and places a hand on her shoulder, before the upper part of her body is in.

He gives her a look and a quick squeeze of her shoulder. "Be careful." He says, his tone serious, but his eyes full of care and love.

Natasha covers Bruce's hand with hers and nods her head. "I will." She whispers and looks over at Clint. "Cover me." She says before she drops down to the floor.

Natasha lands silently on the ground in a crouched position as her eyes surveying the area around her. She's in an empty, dimly light hallway. When she doesn't sense a presence around her, she stands and looks around.

Her eyes lock on the other end of the hallway where she can see that it's a dead end. She turns and takes off running in the opposite direction. Natasha makes her way through the many different hallways, alert for any obstacles. She's vaguely aware of the alarms blaring from levels below. The battle outside had begun leaving her many opportunities to go through the building undiscovered. She can't help the smirk that crosses her features and she runs faster.

She recalls the blueprint of the building she had studied on the flight here. Hydra's main headquarters was predictably buried deep within the maze of halls and rooms. The science department was located on the north side of the building, weapons in the east wing, research west wing and, of course, cells south side. The main headquarters is where she would find Hydra's plans and undoubtedly the leader of this entire organization, while the south side held Darcy.

Before Natasha could debate on where she could go first, she hears footsteps sound from down the corridor. Multiple footsteps that are running in her direction. Natasha looks around and quickly steps inside an empty room to her right. She closes the door and waits. Natasha holds still and watched- through the small available window- as many Hydra soldiers ran past her, all carrying guns. Surely soldiers to handle the agents infiltrating from the sides of the building. Once she sees all the footsteps be at a respectable distance from her, she opens the door and is about to step out… until she hears a last pair of footsteps nearing her again. Only this was one pair of shoes, so this soldier was alone. And from the sound how they are running, must be a rookie. She slips back into the room and leaves it slightly open, watching as the men walks past the door she's in. An idea immediately comes to her mind and as soon as the men's back is to her, she makes her move. In seconds, the man is unconscious and stripped of his uniform. Natasha quickly changes into his uniform and takes his weapons, adding onto her already large stack of weapons on her.

Natasha grabs the man under his armpits and drags him into the room, throwing him carelessly to the side. She huts the door and takes a minute to quickly inspect the ID card. It would work; he wasn't a rookie, but a very high in command officer with keys to everything in this building. Including the cells. Natasha smirks gleefully.

The redhead slips the card into the pocket of the black and red suit she's wearing and hurriedly made her way towards HQ. Nobody questioned her disguise as she passed countless guards and other scientists. In fact, guards saluted her as she past and respectfully greeted, allowing her entrance to any door she needed to get through without question. It was all going great until she actually made it to the center of the building.

There were heavily armed guards waiting outside the door she needed to get through. Not to mention that the door needed a card scan and an eye scanner. But the armed door didn't faze Natasha, she knew Hydra would have some sort of security plan.

She stayed around the corner, edging over slightly to see what kind of situation she was in. Her eyes immediately caught sight of the camera in the corner, directly aimed at her. She had no choice but to move now. Holding a gun in each hand, Natasha stepped out into the hallway with her guns directly aimed at the five guards. She watched as the guards raised their guns, seemingly in slow motion. She emptied them before the guards can even lift theirs. She easily kills two and, with her luck, gets a bullet in one of the guard's stomach. He falls to the ground in pain. Now there's only two left. Without hesitation, Natasha runs back to her corner, using it as cover to block the bullets coming straight at her.

They continue to shoot at her and Natasha waits it out until she hears the familiar and happy sound of a click of their gun. They're out of ammo. Natasha immediately comes out of her hiding spot and threw two of her daggers. One dagger hits one of the men's foreheads, immediately killing him. While the second imbeds itself between the second man's eyes. She can only admire her handiwork for so long before she hears gunshots from a couple halls down. Grabbing one of the rifles from the men, she shoots a round at the door and the scanners, unlocking it.

She pushes it open immediately. The room inside was quiet and empty. As soon as the doors shut behind her, she made her way to the huge table in the center of all the technology and equipment. Papers were spread across the surface and many numbers and equations greeted her along with blueprints and sighs in aggravation when she realizes she doesn't know what any of these mean.

"Stark," Natasha whispers into her comm. "I got into the main headquarters and was able to seek out the room that held everything we need. What am I looking for?"

Natasha can hear the sounds of the battle from behind Stark's voice when he's speaks. "Anything that could tell us what they are planning on doing with Steve. And possibly Darcy. Matter of fact, take everything you can get your hands on. We aren't taking any chances. We're blowing this place to bits as soon as we leave."

Reaching down, Natasha scoops up all the papers and places them in her pockets of the suit she had stole from the soldier. She looks around the room and heads straight for the largest computer in the room. Supplying a hard drive from her cat suit, she implants it in the system and begins downloading all their Intel while also backing up the information she can find. It's a couple minutes later when she hears Tony's voice again.

"Nat, where are you? I found..." But the sound of the soldiers trying to get though the door drowns his voice out.

Natasha presses harder on the comm. to understand what he's trying to say. "Backing up Intel, almost done. What? Stark, I cant hear you."

"I found Darcy." He says after a minute of silence. "She's in the science department. First door on the left."

Natasha's brow creases in confusion. "Science department?" she whispers to herself. She would've lost herself in her thoughts if it wasn't for the beep of her hard drive. It was done. She snatches it from her computer and looks around the room for another way out. She frowns when she realizes there are no windows and one door. But there was a vent underneath one of the tables, being concealed by a table of computers.

Just because she can, Natasha walks to one end of the table, grabs it and- with an expert hand- flips the table over with a little difficulty. The sound of the computers falling onto concrete floor makes her smile and she pulls out her hairpin again. Once she gets the vent top off, she places her hairpin in, secures the papers in her suit and climbs inside. Just as she places the vent back in place, the door burst opens and soldiers run inside the room. She smirks when she hears the many colorful curses come out of their mouths, but she starts crawling away from the room.

_'__Now to find Darcy.'_

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_Just wanted to say thank you so much for all the lovely reviews. You guys are amazing and I'm just very grateful that you guys enjoy reading this story just about as much as I love writing it. Much L.O.V.E to ALL of you!_

_Also I wanted to give a BIG thanks to my beta for this story: The Irish Lass. You are so incredible for putting up with me and I couldnt have wished for a better person to take this job. You make my story a hit and I dedicate this story to you. Your amazing girl, much LOVE! (:_


	19. Chapter 19

"Romanoff, have you found the room Lewis is in?" Clint's voice rings through Natasha's comm as she continues to crawl through the air vents.

"No. Although I might need assistance. I've got 10, possibly 15, guards on my tail and if they find out I snuck through the air vents, I'm screwed." She whispers, crawling fast towards the north side of the building.

"I'm sending Thor your way, Barton. Get to Romanoff and find Lewis." Stark commands.

"I'm on my way." Clint says and Natasha finds herself smiling. With her partner having her back they can make it to science department, get Lewis, and get the hell out of there in less than 20 minutes. Even with guards blocking their way. "Nat, where are you?"

"No, I'll come to you. Stay on the roof until I say so." She orders. Natasha takes a detour and makes her way back to where she first entered the building, going to meet up with partner. As soon as she has him by her side, they'll be unstoppable.

It only takes her a few minutes to find the hallway she entered from. The same dead end and even a few blood stains from the guy she knocked unconscious and stole the uniform from. She looks up and down the hallway cautiously, her hand hesitating to grab her hairpin. When she finds that it's completely empty, she takes out her hairpin and uses it to unscrew the screws and push the top off. She clambers out of the small thing and looks around once more before announcing to Clint that he can come down. Seconds later she sees a body being shimmied down the small door and soon her partner lands on the ground in a crouched position. With one look around, he nods, confirming whatever he was checking for before standing up and looking over at Natasha.

"You okay?" He asks, walking up to her and reaching a hand out. She waves him away and his hand drops. "Where is she?" He asks. He takes his bow into his hands and loads it, keeping it at his side.

"North side of the building. Stark found her in the science department." Natasha replies, grabbing a gun from inside her suit and placing it in one hand while the other produces a dagger.

"Science department?" Clint asks, his brow creasing in confusion. "What is she doing there? Are they experimenting on her?"

"I don't know." Natasha says. "But let's hope that's all they are doing on her. Come on." She begins walking down the hall, Clint following.

The north side was on the other side of where Natasha and Clint were located. So it took them much longer than expected to reach the door. They past many Hydra soldiers and, surprisingly, most of them were shackles. They were currently being led outside by SHIELD agents. There were a good amount that had not been captured, but most were left to be taken. No one helped or even tried to stop the SHIELD agents from taking them. Most were concerned for their own lives rather than their companions. _'What a team.'_ Natasha found herself thinking sarcastically.

The two finally reached the science wing. Natasha puts her dagger back into place, but secures her grip on the gun in her hand. "Tony said she's in the first door on the left." Natasha says, laying herself up against the wall behind her. Clint follows suit. She glances at him before sticking her head out and looking around the corner. She quickly took note of whom or what was in the hallway. "2 scientist, and 5 Hydra soldiers."

"Piece of cake." Clint comments, flipping the knife he's currently holding in his hand. He catches it easily in mid- air giving Natasha goofy grin. She rolls her eyes. "I'll get the soldiers. You get the scientists."

"Screw that." Natasha instantly says, shaking her head. "You aren't going to take all the fun. I'm getting the soldier."

Clint winces and pouts at his partner. "I want the soldiers." He whispers, his bottom lip jutting out.

"Too bad. Come on, stop pouting." Clint continues to pout, even after they jump out of their hiding spot and the soldiers begin shooting at them. As plan, Natasha takes care of the soldiers and Clint knocks the scientist unconscious. When it's over, Clint comes out unscathed and Natasha, fortunately, only came out with a knife wound on her right arm.

"Damn, Nat." Clint says ripping off of piece of her 'borrowed' uniform and wrapping it tightly around the wound. "Why do you always have to take the bigger guys?"

"I like a challenge." She replies easily and as soon as the fabric is tied tight on her arm she pulls away. She pushes open the first door on the left and rushes inside, Clint hot on her tail.

Natasha instantly stiffens when her eyes land on the sight in front of her. Clint stops short, his eyes blank as they stare at what's in front of them. "What the…" He whispers walking up to the table holding the unconscious body of Darcy Lewis attached to many wires connected to a large machine. Natasha follows, but slowly. Her eyes roam around the cold room; her body involuntarily shivering as she moved further into the cold room.

The brunette was being held down by what appeared to be cuffs around his wrists, ankles, waist, torso and neck. She looked so different than the last time Natasha saw the young girl. So much smaller and much weaker. Her bruises and cuts are so prominent on her pale skin. Her cheekbones and stomach have shrunken drastically in size indicating she hasn't been eating and there are welts and burns all over her body. All signs of the healthy, happy teenager are completely gone.

"Darcy? Darcy!" Natasha calls, but to no avail. She was unconscious.

"Stark, we found her. But she's attached to some machinery and unresponsive." Clint says into the comm.

"Get her and get out quick." Stark commands.

Producing her dagger, Natasha cuts the wires connected to Darcy. "Grab her." Natasha says, propping Darcy's limp body up against hers. Clint easily scoops Darcy into his arms and starts walking towards the door while Natasha takes a minute to inspect the largest machine in the room.

"Nat?" Clint calls over his shoulder when he realizes she's not following.

"What were they doing on her?"

"I don't know, but she needs to get to a hospital. We have to go." Clint states.

Natasha follows Clint out of the room and they rush down the hallways together. Getting out of the building seemed like a blur and so did boarding the quinjet and the take off. She didn't feel anything, she didn't see anything. She barely felt it when Bruce places a hand on her shoulder, too caught up in her thoughts. She almost doesn't hear him when he speaks as well. Almost doesn't.

"Natasha, are you alright?" she nods numbly, her eyes looking out the window. A smile creeps onto her face when suddenly, the building exploded. Fire and smoke went everything and everybody in the vicinity or in contact with the explosion had died instantly. _'Good riddance.'_ She thinks unaware of someone talking to her. It's only when Bruce shakes her shoulder that she's brought out her small trance. "Nat, you're bleeding." Looking down at her arm she found that the fabric around her arm had loosened. Now a small flow of blood was running down her arm.

She raises a hand and covers it immediately, coating her hand in blood. "Its fine, just a knife wound. I'll survive."

"That's not the point." Bruce says, shaking his head. "Come on," he directs her to a seat and pulls out a first aid kit.

Natasha starts shaking her head, "I don't need it. Darcy does… where is she?" Natasha adds as an afterthought once she realizes that Darcy was not anywhere in sight.

"In the tail section. They're getting her stabilized then I'll go see what damage they did." Bruce says already cleaning Natasha's cut.

She sits there for a minute, her mind wandering, until her hand subconsciously goes to the suit she's still wearing. After Bruce bandages her up, she slips off the suit and retrieves the notes and papers. Walking up and away, she walks straight up to Stark and dumps them in his lap. "That's all I found and I might have destroyed a few computers and machinery while there." Natasha says pulling out her flash drive. "Oh and this." She tosses it to him and he catches it easily, flipping it around his fingers.

He nods and grabs the paper, securing the hard drive in his hands. "JARVIS?" He asks.

"Scanning information sir." She hears from inside the suit.

"Dr. Banner," Thor calls and both Bruce and Natasha look back to find Clint in the doorway of the tail section. "Darcy is not faring well. She needs medical attention quickly."

"I'm coming. Barton!" Bruce yells up to the cockpit. "Take this plane to the Tower. Stat!"

"You got it." Clint's voice is heard from the front of the plane.

"Stark alert medics and doctors and have them be waiting in the medical center." Tony nods and gives a small salute, already ordering JARVIS to contact them. After seeing nod, Bruce rushes in after Thor, Natasha follows without a word. When she enters the room she finds the young teenager on a stretcher in the middle of the room, her skin seeming to have gotten even paler than the last time she'd seen her.

Natasha sits next to the stretcher, her eyes glued onto the girl. She wanted so much to reach over and hold her hand, give her comfort, but she was scared that she would hurt her. She was aware of Bruce examining, cleaning and bandaging up with her body, but her eyes never strayed from Darcy's face. It hurts her, more than she cares to admit, that Darcy willingly sacrificed herself to save Steve and had to pay the consequences for it. She looked so broken that it pained Natasha to see her like that. Steve would be broken hearted if he knew that he was- '_No. This is not his fault. This is Hydra's and now Hydra has paid.'_

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.…_

"Dar… hold… don't let… on…"

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…_

"Where… hold on… steady…"

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…_

"Hawk! Bring the… she cant… Goddammit! We're losing…"

Beeep. Beeep. Beeep. Beeep…

"Dar… c'mon dollface… pull through… please fight!"

_Beeeep. Beeep. Beeep..._

"Get the… transfusion… losing her… Her heart… weaker… I cant…"

_Beeeeep. Beeeeep..._

"… flatlining… She's unrespon… start compressions…. NOW!"

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep._

"Darcy!"

_BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP._

E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8E8

The first thing she can register when she wakes up is a dull throbbing in the back of her head. Her brain hurt like hell and it was hard to remember what happened last.

She can see a dark room, but that's all she sees. Her vision is extremely blurry that it's hard to tell where she was currently. Her mind was still fuzzy from… what? Something about um… Hydra?... Avengers? Whatever it was, she was too tired to try and remember.

One of the last things she remembers before falling back under is a warm weight against one palm and a soft, high pitched voice whisper her name. "Darcy." One name comes to her mind and she's gone again.

Steve.


End file.
